


A Million Lights In London

by Donsular



Category: Mary Poppins (Movies)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Assault, Bad stuff happens bingo, Character Death, Confessions, Crying, Dark, Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fights, Fire, Gen, Guns, Horror, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Bad At Tagging, Lamps, London, Lots of streetlamps, Past, Protectiveness, Secrets, War, light - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-03-07 14:09:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 44,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18874768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Donsular/pseuds/Donsular
Summary: Light. We all need it. Nobody will ever admit it, but as a species, we’re terrified of the dark. So much so, that not only do we light up our own homes, but we light up the world outside as well, as if the moon and stars aren’t strong enough to brighten up the night. Gas lamps lined the streets, and although we took them for granted, their illumination provided great comfort from the dark. Nobody likes the dark. Very few know how to fight it, to get rid of it and make sure it can’t consume the rest of us. And yet we barely know the dangers. You could never know the sacrifices. You could never imagine the blood spilled. So many gave so much. And we never even knew them. So if it takes people to fight the dark, who are they? Where are they? Why is it, that when you look out your window at night, electric street lights gleam their white artificial glow? What happened to the gas lamps, and where did their lighters go? Do you  really want to know? The night has the darkest stories. But, if you think you can handle it...





	1. Shadows & Strangers

So I suppose this is the story about how London converted to electric street lights. Well, it is if you cut out all the plot and make it boring. History might even say that that’s a good idea. To be fair, it was complicated. And most people wouldn’t believe it, while those who would, would riot and panic. So maybe it’s best that way. But I warned you. And you’re still here. So maybe you’ll be different. Are you sure you know what you’re getting into? Did you read the blurb? I warned you there too. Well you’re here now so I may as well continue. But let me tell you this: after this is all over, you’ll never be able to look at your shadow in the same way again...

On a windy Sunday in the middle of spring, in the middle of a street, in the middle of a house, sat a family. Nothing too significant. But maybe that’s why they’re special. They were just people. People with lives. People with stories. Stories that may even be better than this one... but that’s quite unlikely. But they did have good ones. The Banks family always did. Michael and his sister Jane had actually spent most of the evening reminiscing about their childhood. Recently, Mary Poppins, their incredibly magical nanny, had left the family. She had left a lasting imprint on Michael’s children as she had done on himself and Jane all those years ago. But she left. As she always did.

John, Annabel and Georgie were at the dinner table, recounting tales of their expedition to the summit of Mt. Everest after they chased away some pirates and stole back the King’s jewels. It had been an epic quest and they were even knighted for their valiance. Jane and Michael had been enamoured by their children’s wild imagination and wanted nothing more than for them to never grow up. But of course you can’t do that. It’s impossible. Actually, I shouldn’t say that. ‘Impossible’ is not a word to be used in the Banks family household. After all, they all knew one man that had never truly grown up. A certain lamplighter called Jack. He was a great family friend and they hoped he’d become more than that. After all, he’d been courting Jane for a while now. And she couldn’t help but wonder where it would all go. Jane had always been inclined to giggle, but she couldn’t help it when she thought how her father would react if was alive to see her dating a labourer. Anyone that had even known George Banks would agree and would likely pay to be a fly on the wall during that conversation.

“Alright, here we go, it’s all ready.” At precisely 6:30pm, Ellen came out of the kitchen to serve the Sunday roast. Each plate was well filled with a lamb steak, a Yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes, peas and drizzled in gravy. It was a simpler Sunday roast than what other families had on Cherry Tree Lane, but they were never really a family particularly fond of tradition. A labour rights activist with a lamplighter boyfriend, her artistic brother and his three children with a imagination that would put the most creative writers to shame.

From his position at the table, Georgie had the perfect view. While he ate, he could see through the arch into the living room and out the front window in to the street. The lamp outside the window hadn’t been lit yet, but it would be soon. The night was creeping and with darkness drawing in, it meant that any minute, Jack would come riding down the street on his bike to switch on the lamp. The reason why Georgie was waiting was because he needed to return something. The previous day, Jack had visited the house, but left his flat cap on the hat stand. Georgie wanted to give it to Jack on his morning route, but he’d been asleep and missed Jack passing the house. It was the only annoying thing about Jack’s job. Although he passed the house twice a day, it was always at odd times in the morning or evening, so it wasn’t uncommon to miss him.

It was a while to wait. After all, it hadn’t been completely dark when they sat down to eat, but by seven, it was. Well and truly. And as if on cue, the clacking of wheels on the cobbled road could be heard. Without hesitation, Georgie was up and out of his chair, racing to fetch the cap and hurry out the door. His father had been just as quick to call out to him.

“Where are you going?”

“To give Jack his hat back”, he giggled at the rhythm of the phrase, “I’ll be back in a sec!” There was no sounds of his father chasing him, so Georgie assumed he had the ‘go ahead’ and continued out the door and down the steps to the pavement.

Just as he thought, there he was. Jack already had the ladder up and climbed to reach the lamp, giving the glass a quick wipe before switching it on. He hadn’t even noticed Georgie until until he started speaking.

“Hi Jack!” The leerie was slightly startled by the sudden voice, but quickly calmed upon seeing the young lad below him.

“Hey Georgie! What’re you doing out here?” As Jack climbed down the ladder, Georgie grinned and pulled out the hat.

“You forgot this yesterday.” Taking the hat with a smile, Jack tussled the boy’s hair.

“Thanks, I was wondering where I’d left it.” He put the it back in its rightful place on his head.

From somewhere up the road, the padding of footsteps approached. There was often a couple of people who would still be wandering the streets in the evening, so they hadn’t paid any mind to it. The sound had come closer and the pair had even moved to allow the stranger to get passed. It was only when the footsteps stopped in front of them that it got strange. But they had no time to contemplate before a fist came plunging through the dark to strike Jack in the face before turning to Georgie, clasping a hand over his mouth, hefting him up, and running away with the boy.

Jack didn’t even have a chance to stand up straight before the figure had raced halfway down the road. He didn’t even think. As soon as the leerie realised just what was going on, his feet were already beating the ground as he sprinted after the scumbag.

Whoever he was chasing was certainly a big guy. Heavy boots made it impossible not to hear their steps as their hulking mass hurtled down the street. Jack couldn’t see their face, but he could just about see Georgie’s. Wild eyes filled with terror frantically searched the dark for any escape. He struggled and resisted, but the giant arms clasped around him made it impossible to move. He wanted to scream, but with the hand still over his mouth, the poor boy could only cry in terror. Jack struggled to keep pace with the juggernaut, but was urged on by the sight of the child in need of rescue, and he soon found, he was in just an arm’s reach of them.

As if they too felt it. The stranger turned around. But did something that Jack was not prepared for. They held Georgie as a shield in front of them, their arm wrapped around his neck and pulled out a bloody revolver, placing it to his head. Jack froze.

Shit.

Georgie watched Jack’s face turn stark white as he saw the stranger’s face for the first time. There was a fear in his eyes that he’d never seen before. Jack was always so relaxed. He could only imagine what this meant. He watched Jack try to compose himself, but as he spoke, there was a slight tremor to his voice.

“What do you think you’re doing here?! Put him down right now!” The man only laughed.

“And why would I do that? I’m having so much fun and you can’t exactly do much about this!” What he said must have struck true, as Jack was quiet, not quite sure what to say at all. As his heart raced, Georgie watched Jack make his decision.

If he couldn’t speak. He’d act.

In one swift motion, Jack launched a fist at the man and wrenched Georgie from his arms, shouting,

“RUN!” He didn’t hesitate, not for a moment. Before anything else could happen, Georgie raced back up the road and back towards Cherry Tree Lane, completely ignoring the scuffle behind him as Jack desperately tried to pry the gun from their cold hands.

Georgie sprinted for his life, feeling a sense of security as he reached home. He could see the lamp he and Jack had been talking by only a minute ago. Jack’s ladder was still up against the lamp while his bike was propped up next to it. As he ran down the centre of the road, he almost smiled at the safety, but then he heard it.

BANG.

A gunshot rang out. Loud. Clear. Definitely a gun. Georgie stopped as he listened for anything else. He couldn’t hear shouting. But he hadn’t been able to ever since he ran away. Still, the fact he heard nothing made him sick. Was the shot an accident? Was Jack hurt? He half expected at any moment for the big stranger to come running out of the darkness to grab him again. Instead, a hand grasped him from behind and Georgie couldn’t help but scream.

“Hey, Hey, it’s alright.” Georgie’s tear stained face turned to look into the worried eyes of his father. Just a few steps behind, Aunt Jane stood looking equally concerned.

“We heard a gunshot, what’s going on?!” Upon taking in Georgie’s state, both Jane and Michael went pale. When Georgie didn’t speak and instead started crying, Jane asked another question,

“Where’s Jack?” Georgie couldn’t help but panic when he saw their faces. As tears cascaded down his face and his breaths became rapid, he managed a few words,

“Jack! He-heranandtheyfoughtan-andhehadagunand- and-“ the words couldn’t be said fast enough, jumbling together into one incoherent mess. Michael tried to decipher what was happening, but failed. He decided to take them back inside to calm down and try again.

The trio raced back into the house where Jane shut the door and Michael placed Georgie on the couch, kneeling in front of him to try to calm him down. John and Annabel stood in shock at the situation, before piling onto the couch, crowding on top of their father and brother to find out what was going on.

“What happened?!”

“Is he alright?!” The noise was getting too much and Ellen ushered them away from the pair. Taking them to the window where they watched for anyone approaching the house.

“Georgie, it’s alright. Breathe. Ok? What’s going on?” The boy’s rasping breath made it hard to speak, but he tried desperately to slow down,

“Someone hit Jack and tried to take me but he stopped them and I think they killed him!” He couldn’t avoid sobbing helplessly as Michael tried to comfort him in a hug as he tried to digest the information.

“They had a gun?!”

“Yeah!” Georgie could have sworn he heard a quivering curse muttered by his father. Standing up, Michael turned to Jane, giving her a look. They had to do something. Truthfully told though, Michael had never felt so scared in his life. He wished it was some sort of misunderstanding, but that gunshot had been loud enough to hear even from in their house. There was no denying it. So with the thought of Jack lying dead in the street, he prayed that something less terrible had happened. Jane stood at the entrance of the living room with a hand over her mouth. She looked equally pale and equally on the verge of vomiting. Her heart had dropped to her stomach where it was slowly being digested as she tried to imagine what she’d do if anything happened to Jack. It would be such a bleak world without his clever jokes and quick wit and oh dear god that smile. She couldn’t help it as tears welled up in her eyes. This couldn’t be happening.

As Michael and Jane tried to quickly cobble together some kind of plan of action, Annabel’s voice chimed through the tense air with a much needed sense of glee.

“LOOK! It’s Jack!” She was pointing out the window and sure enough, there was Jack. He was walking up the road looking a little worse for wear but didn’t seem to be dying like they had feared. The whole family gathered by the front door, hurriedly opening it as Jack stumbled inside. Jane slammed the door shut behind him, locking it quickly.

“Thank god you’re alright!” Jack gave her a weary smile. He certainly looked rough. His hair was a scruffy mess and he was certainly trying to get over the fright by forcing a laugh, but the tremble in his hands, and his voice, was plain to see. It had quite clearly shaken him. Michael looked him over, quickly scanning for any serious injuries,

“Are you alright? Were you hurt?”

“No I’m fine,” he assured, “he did wind me with a pretty hefty kick, but that’s about as bad as it got.” Georgie was at his side in an instant, arms wrapped around the man’s waist, his breath hitched and once more, he burst into tears. Jack crouched to his level, taking the boy’s small hands in his own and looking him in the eyes.

“It’s alright, it’s alright. See?” He smiled brightly, he himself finally calming down a bit, “I’m fine. You’re fine. We’re both fine.” Georgie quietly inspected Jack’s hands before looking over the rest of him. When he was finally satisfied that he wasn’t lying about it, he nodded and fell forward into a hug, which the leerie returned.

They stayed like that for a while before they parted and Michael asked,

“Well if you’re ok, then what was that gunshot? You didn’t...”

“Oh god no! In the scuffle, he accidentally shot it and got spooked. I think he must’ve known people would hear. In the end, he just ran off.” Michael was quite surprised by this, but it was true, lots of people must have heard and if he stayed, the whole street would’ve come out to apprehend him together. He’d have no chance.

“And you’re sure you’re ok?”

“Positive.” Michael seemed to feel like he couldn’t have it confirmed enough. It was all so fast. All so insane. It was hard to believe that he got away with just being winded, but he was so glad that that was the case. They all just stood there in silence for a minute, trying to understand what happened. It was then that they realised, they didn’t even know who’d done it, or why. But needless to say, they had to do something about it.

“I think we need to go to the police in the morning. That guy’s still out there.” Jane looked tired, but spoke with the same determination she always had.

“Yes, and Jack, I think you should stay tonight, I don’t like the idea of you cycling home on your own at night after all this.” Jack didn’t argue, frankly, he seemed quite relieved by the proposal. He didn’t seem ready to face the world again for a little while. They all chose to gather for a cup of tea to calm their frayed nerves. The idea was that they’d talk a bit about what happened, but in the end, everyone just sat in silence, relishing the peace. And they stayed quiet for the rest of the evening, even more than when they slept. After their tea, everyone turned in for the night. The children heading to the nursery, Michael to his room, Jane to hers and Jack to the guest room. It had been quite the day, but right now, all they wanted more than anything was for it to be over. And the best way to do that, was with a good nights sleep.


	2. Statements

What an odd morning. It had been rather peculiar. Jack woke up early like always, and was out the door on his bike to turn off the lamps. London was quiet and calm. It was hard to believe that two people nearly died that night and the whole world seemed to be just like normal. If you’d seen him turn down the lamps, you’d have known something was wrong. The fright seemed to distract Jack to the point where it almost looked like he’d never done his job before. He was deep in thought and for once, hadn’t greeted any passers-by. He hadn’t once looked up to admire the sky and there was no song on his lips. For the first time, Jack rode in a deep silence. He’d certainly had some odd looks from passing leeries, but they didn’t know what had transpired. Instead they just rode on looking as if Jack had winked at them with a third eye on a second head.

The cold rarely bothered him, but the early dawn was certainly testing him on that day. He wanted nothing more than to get back to the Banks home. They were planning on all going to the police to tell them what was going on and to try catch the scumbag. Jack couldn’t deny, he was certainly apprehensive. Telling the police was definitely necessary, but that didn’t make the task any less daunting. There was a lot that he wasn’t prepared to tell them yet.

By the time he returned, the sun had risen and so had the Banks. As he entered the house, the family had all gathered at the dining table to eat breakfast. They had greeted him like any normal day and he joined them like nothing was wrong. It was a strange feeling, as if the night before was just a nightmare. Even Georgie seemed fine. And it was all very casual as they gathered up to go to the police station. Jack put a hand in his jacket pocket. He hadn’t wanted to leave without it, but he couldn’t exactly take it with him to a police station. The whole family started mindless chit chat: Michael was telling John about a coworker’s son’s antics, while Georgie and Annabel played a game of ‘I spy’.

Jack was at the back of the group when Jane joined him.

“Are you sure you’re alright? You’ve been awfully quiet.” Jack hadn’t even realised, but it was true. He’d hardly said a word all day, whereas anyone who knew him would tell you that normally, he never shuts up.

“I’m fine.” She looked at him quizzically, her eyes heavily laced with concern.

“Ok. You know, if something else happened last night, you can tell me.”

“I know.” The conversation went no further than that.

In about half an hour, they reached the police station. The high ceilings and marble floor gave the cold white room an even more intimidating look. They approached the front desk to find a middle aged man with a proud moustache. Jane had been quick to speak, wanting nothing more than for this god-awful business to be over and done with as soon as possible.

“Hello sir, we’d like to report an incident that occurred last night.” The man looked up past his glasses at her, not even attempting to raise his head in her direction.

“And what would that be?”

“My nephew and friend,” she gestured to Jack and Georgie, “we’re attacked last night. He tried to kidnap Georgie and assaulted Jack.” The officer looked a little more interested at this point. Clearly it was one of the more interesting cases he’d heard in a while. He took a look over Jack and Georgie before responding.

“Well if that’s the case, then I suppose we better take some statements and see what can be done.” In only a few minutes, each member of the family was whisked away for a one-on-one chat to get their perspective of the incident. Of course Jack and Georgie were the only ones there, but the police were adamant to find consistency in the aftermath to help increase the likelihood of the incident itself holding truth.

Georgie was very nervous and kept looking to everyone to be calmed by their relaxed nature, while he waited to be spoken to. Jack seemed to be the only one that was nervous; sitting quietly, he bounced his leg while he fiddled with the frayed ends of his gloves. His eyes were well trained on the fabric, refusing to look at anyone else until he was called, where he swiftly stood and followed the officer down the hall without even offering a smile. He’d never seen him like this and began to worry. He’d seen aunt Jane speaking to him on the walk up, he’d noticed his dad’s quick glances, John trying and failing to engage him in conversation as Annabel tried to do things to catch his attention. But he was in his own world. As if he was running on autopilot. He wasn’t sure what happened after he ran away, but Jack seemed to have known the attacker, and the thought made him sick to the stomach. God only knows what happened, but with a personal relationship between them, it could only mean that something bad had happened. The whole thing with the gunshot seemed the weirdest. Why would he run away so fast? Why would Jack be so nervous. Eventually, he came up with two ideas, and neither one was at all a pleasing thought: either Jack shot him, or the attacker was still looking for him.

Georgie was so deep in thought, that he almost didn’t notice when the officer returned Jack and wanted to speak to him next. He followed the man down the hall and into a room where a woman sat at a wooden desk. Long blonde flowing hair and bangs framed a porcelain face with blue eyes and red lips. She wore a kind smile and chirped a bright greeting as Georgie sat down.

“Good morning young man!” Georgie replied on reflex with all the polite etiquette he could muster in the moment.

“Good morning, Miss.”

“Please, call me Rose.”

“Ok.” She flashed another smile before looking at her papers, picking up her pen and speaking again.

“So, I’ve been told that someone tried to attack you and a mister-” she looked at the papers closer, “Jack Hartley. Is that correct?” Georgie nodded before he even realised exactly what she had said: Hartley? Jack’s surname wasn’t Hartley, it was Hackney. They’d just spoken to him, they should’ve known. Had they misheard him? Had he said his own name wrong? Or had it been deliberate, and if so, why? But before he could really contemplate it any further, she was talking again.

“So tell me what happened.” Georgie told her step by step what happened that night: from returning Jack’s hat, to being grabbed, the chase along the streets, the fight, running home, and Jack’s return after the gunshot. He told her how scared he’d been and how Jack turned up to tell him that the man ran away after accidentally firing his gun. Her brow furrowed.

“He told you the gunshot scared away the attacker?”

“Yes,” he answered, confused (what was wrong with his account?), “he said the guy shot the gun in the air by accident in the scuffle and ran away. Jack said he probably knew people would hear and try to stop him.”

“Alright...” she wrote down something more, but now her smile was gone. A frown lay on her lips.

“Did you see what the suspect looked like?”

“Not really. When he grabbed me, I wasn’t facing him and while he was running, he was making me face forward. And then when I ran away, I didn’t look back at him. But he was very big.” He rattled his brain for any knowledge on the matter, “but Jack seemed to recognise him.” She perked up at that,

“Really? Did he mention any names?”

“No, but when he saw him he looked all shocked and said: ‘what are you doing here?’” He was quite proud of his impersonation of Jack.

“Interesting. He emphasised the ‘here’?”

“Yeah.” He couldn’t understand at all why that would be so important.

“Alright then. Can you tell me about Jack?” This question really caught him off guard.

“What about him?”

“Well, what is he like usually? Is he a nice person? Do you see him a lot? You know, that sort of thing.” Starting to feel the pressure from her increasingly probing nature, he decided to just answer and get it over with.

“He’s really nice and we see him a lot. He’s a lamplighter and his route finishes outside our house so we see him every day. He’s really fun and plays with us a lot, Oh, and he has the best stories. He plays games with us and talks a lot. And he likes Aunt Jane, Annabel even thinks he’s going to become Uncle Jack soon!” She started taking more notes and for a while, a silence filled the room.

“So he comes to your house a lot. Have you ever been to his?”

“No, actually, I don’t know where he lives or what his family’s like. He just comes by our house everyday and it goes from there.”

“And what has he been like since last night?”

“Weird. He hasn’t really said anything all day and he keeps looking nervous. Dad said he thinks something else happened and Jack is hiding it. He’s sorta just been in his own world all day.” Rose made some final notes before putting her pen down and smiling again for the first time in, what felt like, years.

“Alright, that’s everything now. Thank you.” Georgie hopped off the chair and made his way to the door, where the officer outside directed him down the hall to his family, while he went back in to speak with Rose.

As he reached the group, everyone started to gather their things.

“Alright then, that’s all of us, let’s go.” An authoritative voice boomed through the air. Everyone turned to see the officer that had been fetching everyone for their interviews was the source.

“Actually that’s not it.” He looked at Jack with a cold gaze, “if you could follow me please, sir.” A few surprised glances were shared before everyone sat back down and Jack was whisked away for a second time. He hadn’t said a word, but there was an odd look in his eyes, as if something was going wrong. Georgie had no clue what it could be, but the feeling didn’t go away, even when his father assured him that they must have just needed to clarify a few extra things. Everyone assumed they’d just thought of one or two more questions they wanted to ask, but the time dragged on too much for that to be the case. Everyone else had been finished in about 5 minutes (give or take a minute or two), but the few minutes soon became much more and at the half hour mark, everyone really started to get concerned.

It was around this time that Jack and the officer returned.

“That will be all. We’ll let you know when we get any new information.” This time, everyone gathered their things and actually left. But something felt very wrong. No matter where they went, Georgie swore he was being watched. Every movement he made was being intensely and carefully scrutinised, but no matter what, he couldn’t see who was looking. He instead tried to focus on something more positive, but there wasn’t much in that department with the family conversation. As they walked, Aunt Jane had been ranting about the interviews. According to everyone, they’d all been asked about Jack, he’d been put under a lot more scrutiny and for some reason, they had been trying to poke holes through his story. She was furious that they were questioning the adult’s account and not the child’s, and she seemed to believe it was to do with class.

“Honestly,” She had huffed, “I would’ve thought that of all places, class would have the least effect on treatment by the police. When is the world going to realise that how much money someone has, has no correlation to how much respect they deserve. You can be rich and evil or good. And you can be poor as well as evil or good. Money makes no difference!” Surprisingly, or maybe not so, Jack had remained silent throughout this time, despite the conversation being focussed on him. He was once again in his own world, but everyone so often, Georgie caught him sneaking looks at him. And it was certainly unnerving. There was something about his eyes that just seemed... dead. The glint was gone, and he looked at his as if at any moment, he could drop dead and Jack wouldn’t care in the slightest. If anything, it looked like he would want that to happen. Not once had he felt so uncomfortable around Jack. He’d never been in such a hurry to say goodbye. But there’s a first time for everything. But of course, on the one occasion he felt this way, his father just had to ask,

“Hey Jack, would you like to stay for dinner?”


	3. Left Or Right?

It was after dinner. A bit of chaos had unfolded while preparing the meal after Ellen had gone home ill. It may or may not have ended in an explosion of gravy. Now, in theory, he should have been getting ready for bed. But curiosity got the best of him. So there he was. Georgie was stood by the door to Jack’s room, trying to peek inside.

Dinner had been the same as the rest of the day, really awkwardly quiet. Jack had finally decided to give up with the silent treatment, but you could still count each time he had spoken throughout the meal on only one hand. Nothing he had done was particularly rude, but it was certainly unusual. One thing that had certainly struck him as odd was when John asked him if he had any funny stories. He’d actually been quite reluctant to say anything, and the story had been worded in such a way that it was so vague, you couldn’t really appreciate what he and his fellow leeries had done. Normally, Jack loved nothing more than to tell and make jokes about his and his friends’ antics, but today, he seemed very hesitant, as if he barely even knew the story. Most of the evening was just John and Annabelle trying to entertain everyone with their stories and of course Georgie had joined in with that. But he couldn’t help but feel weird that Jack was at the table with them, yet not the one telling the most stories. He was always a fun guest, but of course, he was acting weird. He was nice enough to offer help to Michael and Jane to clean up as, but other than that, he didn’t really join in with anything that evening. After dinner, he had headed upstairs to fetch the key to his bike, which was currently chained up outside. So when he had made his way up, Georgie had been quick to follow.

Which leads us to the current situation: Georgie stood outside the guest room, trying to peek inside. Luckily, the door wasn’t properly shut, so he could push it slightly ajar without making noise by turning the handle. Inside, he could just about see Jack. He watched as the leerie picked up his hat from the bedside drawers and plopped it on his head. But as he moved next, Georgie’s breath caught in his throat. Jack opened the top drawer, reached inside, retrieved something, and shut it again. As he held the object, Georgie tried to get a look at it: a long silver barrel attached to a small handle. Without a doubt, it was a gun. Georgie’s heart stopped as he realised what else was on it. At the tip of the barrel was a smattering if blood, most likely from firing it while being placed right against the target, the handle was also splattered in the same red substance which looked like it had been used to give a beating. Never had Georgie so badly wanted to throw up. Why on earth did he have that? What had he done? What was going on?! A voice cut through the air. Quite quiet. And calm. Disturbingly calm.

“You know, I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t contradict my story with yours.”

He’d been spotted? How?!

“Georgie, you almost got me into a lot of trouble for that. And we can’t have that, now can we?” What was he doing? He watched in horror as Jack turned to the door, a crazed grin plastered across his face and the revolver ready to fire.

“Come here!” Suddenly, Jack charged to the door and burst through knocking Georgie down. A rough hand grabbed him by the collar and the gun was thrust against his head, causing him to let out a blood curdling scream. Before he could react, he was hoisted into his arms with the gun still pressed to his skull. His heart beat thundered in his chest as fast as the footsteps of his family carried them into view. The four of them all stood at the bottom of the stairs with a look of horror as they took in the scene before them.

“Jack,” his father’s voice trembled, “what are you doing?!” Jack let out a crazed laugh, a cackling that was nothing like his normal laugh. His laugh was always so warm but now, it was just psychotic.

“THIS IS FUCKING PRICELESS! How the hell have you still not figured it out?! God, you’re idiots! I’M NOT JACK! And I intend to finish what I started last night!” He was met with wide eyes and hanging jaws. Tears were welling in John and Annabelle’s eyes, but Georgie was already weeping in a feral fear.

“So you attacked them?! Wait, but what about Jack? Did you-? You didn’t-“ Not-Jack grinned and nodded.

“Oh yes I did. I’ve never enjoyed splitting someone’s skull open so much before! Hahahahahahaha! And that bullet went right through his throat! HIS SCREAMS WERE INCREDIBLE!! And now, I’m sure he’s having a lovely time, SIX FEET UNDERGROUND!” His laughter drowned everyone’s terror and shock. But before anyone could begin to do anything, something in Not-Jack seemed to change. His whole body turned an inky black as his skin turned to sludge. His grotesque face hung and dead white eyes sagged in its face. An open jaw revealed layers on razor sharp teeth almost too big for it to be able to close its mouth. Where it’s human arms and legs once were, skeletal black legs replaced them, turning into large bird like claws at the end, only made worse by the increased height of the creature to about eight and a half feet.

The creature stomped down the stairs, each step leaving a damp black mark as it’s wet slaps echoed in the silence. It stared intently, still carrying Georgie, as it growled.

“Now I suggest you let me leave, otherwise I’ll have to deal with you as well.” Michael looked at Jane with no clue what to do. In the presence of the monster, they found themselves stepping out of its way and pulling the children along with them. Shaking terribly, they watched as it tightened its grip around Georgie and stepped into the entryway, still watching them carefully, expecting them to fight. But they didn’t. They were frozen. Michael looked around for any solution. Adrenaline flooded his system, pumping and beating as if it was trying to escape. His heart was on the verge of exploding as his eyes widened. His body couldn’t decide if it wanted to run away, or to grab the nearest weapon and kill the thing that had his son, but instead, he remained still. Let’s face it, he only had one option: pray it wouldn’t kill him. He could’ve vomited as saliva thickened in his throat and beads of sweat trickled down his brow. He’d have to move, and he’d have to live with whatever happened. But all that happened in the end was the front door bursting open.

Charging through in a blur and tackling the creature to the ground came- Jack?! The real, actual Jack! He was covered in blood and dirt, but he was definitely there. He wrenched Georgie from its arms and flung him back towards Michael, who gripped him in a tight hug. Jack wrestled with the monster, kicking it in the chest causing it to double over, creating the perfect opportunity to punch it in the side of the head. It roared in a satanic mixture of pain and fury as it’s form began to change. Shifting and contorting into a perfect clone of Jack. The same blood in the same places and covered from head to toe in dirt, and all in an instant, Jack was fighting a copy of himself. The pair landed multiple hits on each other and threw each other to the ground. But on no occasion did either give up. The other’s persistence would make them resilient and fight back harder, until they were both inflicting new injuries on each other.

Michael wasn’t sure what to do, but when the revolver was dropped, he immediately picked it up and pointed it at the pair. But then he realised. He had no idea which was which. He looked between the pair. Same clothes. Same hair. Wait! The one on the left had a scar! Wait, never mind, so did the other one. The were exactly identical. It was impossible to know which was which. Upon noticing, the pair stopped and turned to Michael with wide eyes, instantly realising their circumstances.

“Ok. I don’t know which of you is my friend and which is a disgusting creature, but I’m going to find out somehow. So I suggest you comply with me.” Both Jacks nodded and as Michael ordered them to put their hands up, they both complied.

“Good. Now, when is my birthday?” Without hesitation, both responded at the same time,

“11th of October 1906.” Honestly, for a moment he almost smiled at how sweet it was that Jack knew that without hesitation, but then he remembered that it meant he was no closer to working out which one was the imposter. Jane stepped forward,

“What’s my middle name?” Yet again, they answered at the same time,

“Anne.” It was no good. The whole family asked questions but every time, they both answered correctly: how did Mary Poppins came back? She held onto Georgie’s kite. What story did you tell on your own in the Royal Doulton Music Hall? The dirty rascal. What’s leerie speak? You don’t say what you mean, you say something that rhymes. Nothing was working and none of them wanted it to drag on any longer. He couldn’t decide who to choose: left or right? But then, Michael had an idea. The monster had clearly done a lot of research into their lives in preparation for a situation like this. So if he asked a question Jack wouldn’t know the answer to, the monster would know and would answer, giving itself away. And on top of that, if it’s knowledge was linked to Jack’s, neither would know, and he wouldn’t shoot, so he couldn’t hit the wrong one if his initial theory was wrong.

“What was my wife’s name.” And just like he expected, the one on the right was silent while the one on the left instantly responded.

“Kate.”

Without hesitation, Michael fired, hitting the Jack on the left, landing a lucky hit just above the eyes. The children screamed as the body slumped to the floor against the door. Jane was hysterical,

“Why did you shoot him?!”

“I never told Jack her name, he shouldn’t have been able to answer.” This seemed to satisfy Jane enough to not say anything more, but the look of horror had not yet been stricken from her face. The real Jack stepped forward and briefly hugged Michael.

“That was clever. I thought it’d never be over. Thanks.” And with that, he grabbed the gun, grabbed Georgie, raced into the lounge and climbed up the chimney like Jane and Michael had done as children with Bert and Mary. They stood dumbfounded for a moment as they realised what just happened. That was actually the creature and it had actually gotten away. Without a second thought, Michael hurried to the fireplace and looked up to see that it was gone. He wished with all he had that he’d be able to get up there, and as if on cue, the magic that had taken him to the roof all those years ago, worked again and sent him up, closely followed by Jane and the children.

Upon reaching the cool night air, Jane was the first to spot Not-Jack, who had now turned back into its monstrous form, running along roofs with Georgie under his arm.

“THERE!” They took off running after it. Despite its size, the creature couldn’t match the sprint of a father saving his son, and soon enough, the whole family had caught up to it. That didn’t stop it from fighting though. The whole family charged at it, jumping onto its body in an attempt to wrench its arm free from Georgie. But the creature was ready and held on with a tight grip as it plucked each person from its body and threw them away from it. However, this was not enough to stop the Banks, after all, impossible wasn’t a word in their vocabulary. They attacked in wave after wave. No matter how many times they were knocked down, they got right back up and started again. The relentless onslaught made it impossible for the creature to get away and it was quickly growing tired of all the effort.

“ENOUGH! If you want him back so badly, HAVE HIM!!” With that, it reached to Georgie to throw him forward to the Banks, but as it did so, it’s arm raised and a cold black smoke formed from its deformed hand. As he tossed the boy, the creature shot the smoke at Georgie, who let out a blood curdling scream as he was hit. He was unconscious before he even hit the floor, and just as fast, the creature vanished into the night.

“GEORGIE!” Michael was by his side in an instant, desperately checking his son for injuries and finding non, but when he didn’t wake up, nothing could hold back the torrents of tears down his face. He couldn’t believe everything that had just happened. Only yesterday, everything had been perfectly normal. But now, everything was turning on its head. Since when were monsters real?! John and Annabel sat next to him, curled up against his body for the comfort that he was in no position to give. He could only hope that Georgie would wake up and they could try to go back to normal. But it was fairly obvious that regardless of whether Georgie would wake up or not, nothing was ever going to be the same again.

Jane had been wandering the roofs in the nearby vicinity of her brother, looking around for any sign that the creature was still lurking. But by all indications, it really had gone. She couldn’t imagine why on earth it had wanted Georgie to begin with, and she had no idea what that smoke had really done to him, but nothing about the situation sat well with her. She felt on edge, as if something was missing. But everyone was still there. She checked. Turning around, sure enough, Michael, Annabel, John and Georgie were all still there. As she looked around, there was nothing particularly unusual about their surroundings. The roofs looked normal, the only odd thing about it was that they were there on top of them. But still, she felt like she was missing something, or forgetting something, or forgetting someone. Then it hit her.

“JACK!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m glad to see people have been enjoying this so far. There’s a lot more to come that I hope you’ll enjoy. Thank you for reading and hopefully, I’ll see you again next week!


	4. Keepers Of The Flame

It had been a difficult task, but eventually, the Banks were able to retrace their steps and find their chimney. Each of them jumped down, one after the other as Michael carried Georgie, and they all tumbled into the living room, covered in soot. Michael laid Georgie out on the couch and the children sat with him. It had been such a ridiculous day, but they could only hope that was the end of it. For the moment, they relished in the quiet, calm, peacefully lit room.

Jane looked out to the entryway. Biting her lip, she hesitated for a moment, but quickly found the courage to go out and face the outcome of their actions. But when she got there, she hadn’t quite expected to see what she did.

“OH MY GOD JACK!” How the hell was it possible?! There Jack sat, leaning against the door and very much alive. He rubbed his head as if the bullet wound there was but a mild inconvenience. But when his hand moved away, Jane lost her breath.

How the fuck did that happen?!

There was no bullet wound. There was some blood around his head, but no entry wound. In fact, as she looked at him, sure, he was covered from head to toe in dirt and blood, but there was not a single injury on his body. Jack looked with bleary eyes as if she’d just rudely awoken him from a peaceful nap, but offered her a smile regardless.

“How are you still alive!” By now, everyone else had come in to see what was going on, and were equally stunned by the scene.

“G’mornin.” Deciding not to point out the fact that it wasn’t the morning and in fact was still the middle of the night, Michael decided to point out something else that was equally obvious.

“But- but I- I shot you!”

“I know, d’ya mind not doing it again?” He couldn’t believe it. What the hell was going on?!

“And do you mind telling us why you’re not dead?!” He had to admit, it was almost comical how he sounded like he was scolding Jack for still being alive, but in the moment, it felt appropriate to ask.

“Oh yeah that...”

“Well. We’re waiting.” Jack shifted his position on the floor to get a bit more comfortable from the awkward slump he’d died in. He tried to force a jokey smile, but with the eyes all on him, it wasn’t coming easy, and it wasn’t the most cheery thing to tell them. It was probably the most serious thing he’d ever tell them. 

“Look, I know this is all pretty weird. But it’ll make sense in a minute. Actually, scratch that, the reasoning behind it’s just as bad. Well, for this to make sense, there’s one thing you need to know. Darkness is a thing.” Everyone looked at him like an idiot at that point as Jack realised he wasn’t doing such a great job of explaining this.

“As in, it’s an actual entity. It’s not just the lack of light, darkness is it’s own substance. And it’s the leeries’ jobs to stop it. We’re chosen as children, and get the ability to fight the darkness. Most of the time, we just have to do that by lighting lamps, but, as you’ve just seen, sometimes, we have to physically fight it. But it’s our job too. That’s why it can’t kill us. A leerie can only die from age, so when you shot me, I had no problem coming back.” He was met with wide eyes before Annabelle asked,

“So is that’s why we heard the gunshot last night? Did it kill you?”

“Yes actually. Twice. Not my proudest moment. It shot me in the chest, but that healed quite quickly so then he split my head open. Which took a bit longer to go away.”

“So why are you covered in dirt? And how come it’s taken you all day to come back?”

“Yeah, funny story. So after it killed me, it put me in someone’s bin and came back later in the night. By that point, he had to kill me again so I got another bullet in the head. Then, so I couldn’t get back, he buried me. So when I woke up, I would suffocate, die, wake up again and the cycle just repeated. So it took a while to dig my way out in between dying.” He gave a slight chuckle but no one else laughed. They were all too disturbed by how messed up that was and how cheerful he was despite it.

“How on earth are you still smiling?!”

“Well I’m a leerie. We have the light to make us eternally happy. I don’t think I’ve ever felt sadness for more than a day at a time.” They didn’t get it. After all that and he was magic. He just didn’t die. He was just happy. No clever escape. No plan of action. No hope, other than the fact that he can’t stay dead. If it was going to get worse and the whole ‘darkness being an entity’ thing became a bigger problem, their lives would depend entirely on leeries doing things in between dying. Dear God.

Jack looked over the group looking more than a little concerned.

“Where’s Georgie?”

“He’s on the couch. That thing hit him with some strange smoke and he’s unconscious.”

“WHAT?!” Jack was up in an instant, surprising everyone that he was actually alright. He walked over to Georgie and crouched down at his side checking him over: placing a hand against his forehead, opening and looking at his eyes, looking inside his mouth. With each check he grew paler and started muttering something under his breath.

“This is bad. This is very bad.”

“What? What’s wrong?”

“He’s dying, that’s what’s wrong!” This had the immediate effect of alarming all present, who swiftly came to Georgie’s side hoping to help even though they had no idea what to do.

“So what do we do?!” Michael was on the verge of screaming at Jack, becoming too overwhelmed by all the madness.

“I need to get the others.” He said this more to himself and quickly raced outside to find his bike still there. He grabbed a lantern on the back and picked up a box of matches, before retrieving his ladder and bringing it inside. Everyone watched in confusion and followed him as he took the ladder upstairs and to the nursery. Setting it up on the balcony, he started to climb onto the roof. Jane was the first in the room and asked,

“What are you doing?” He called back down,

“I’m gathering the leeries.”

As he reached the roof, Jack struck a match and lit his lantern. The little glow of the candlelight was delicate and weak, but as he reached inside, he pinched the flame, and as he closed his eyes, the light grew until it was a bright beacon shining across all of London. Smiling at his handiwork, Jack removed his hat. The Banks watched in total confusion as Jack started placing the hat in front of the light, blocking it, before removing it again. He had a strict rhythm of the timing of each concealment and they quickly realised it was morse code.

“.-.. . . .-. .. . ... --..-- / .- ... ... . -- -... .-.. .” Across London, another light appeared, also flashing at intervals in response.

“..-. ..- -.-. -.- --..-- / .- .-.. .-. .. --. .... -“ Jack looked quite surprised by the message and quickly responded.

“--- .. --..-- / .-.. .- -. --. ..- .- --. .” To which they replied,

“... --- .-. .-. -.--“ Seemingly satisfied with the messages, he packed up and came back down the ladder to the balcony where Jane was waiting.

“Ok, we all need to go. Come on.”

“Where are we going.”

“We’re going to my work. They’ll be able to help.” With that, the family swiftly gathered together and headed out the door.

The streets seemed to be a lot darker than normal, even though the lamps were all lit. For this reason, Jack lead the group with his own lantern, followed by Michael carrying Georgie, the children, and Jane taking up the rear. The night was quiet and according to Michael’s watch, that was down to the fact that it was one o’clock in the morning. But even so, it just felt wrong. Every shadow seemed like a deep abyss that if one got too close, one could easily fall down into it. And the dark clouds beginning to tower over London, seemed to indicate that a storm was coming. John and Annabel were chatting with Jane to try and lighten their moods and Michael could honestly say, it was working. Their cheerful voices chirping through the cold night air, seemed to bring a sense of warmth that non of the adults present, even Jack, could create. In fact, Jack looked the most stressed out of all of them. He was the one person who knew what was going on, but the thought that knowing was more stressful than not, made the situation seem much worse. Still, it couldn’t hurt to talk to him a bit.

“Hey, Jack.” He didn’t look away from the street ahead of him as he responded.

“Yeah.”

“How did you know my wife?” Jack looked at him with a small but genuinely shocked glance.

“What?”

“I asked you what my wife’s name was. Back at the house. I figured that that thing would know and you wouldn’t. But I was wrong. But, how did you know her?” Jack didn’t answer at first and for a moment Michael thought he wouldn’t answer at all.

“Kate was my friend. She was an unusual woman. She had the same light as a leerie, but she never got the title. She never seemed sad, could always fight away darkness, but she never had the same powers as a leerie. She used to always help us out and was always the one to start a party.” Michael chuckled. Kate had always been a lively woman.

“God, I remember when she had a drinking contest with Jay and Rupert. Somehow she won and they were both Irish. I don’t think they’ve ever lived that one down. But when the slump hit, we all had to work more and ended up falling out of touch with her. A shame really. She was a lovely woman.”

“Do you know what happened to her? You know, the heart attack?” Jack’s brow furrowed.

“Heart attack? She never had a heart attack.”

“She did. She died from it last year. It just hit her while she was in the street. She didn’t even make it to the hospital.”

“Her Doctor was Dr Farthing, yes?” Michael was more than a little confused as to how he’d know such a thing if he supposedly fell out of touch with her.

“Yeah.”

“Figured. He always uses the same cover story.”

“What do you mean: cover story?” As if Jack realised what he had just said, his eyes went wide. He hadn’t meant to say that. He hurriedly tried to brush over the whole thing,

“I think that’s a story for another time.” Michael was dumbfounded by this,

“What?! You can’t say something like that and just not elaborate. You have to tell me!”

“Well I’m afraid it’s going to have to wait. We’re here.”

They arrived at an old, quite run down building on Liberty Street, which was just near the Thames. It was tucked away in the corner of the narrow dead-end street where buildings were squashed together so tightly all the way round creating what was almost a barricade, and the only way out, was if you went back the way you came. The unpleasant buildings fenced them in and gave the road a very boxed-in claustrophobic feeling. The third building along by the corner, appeared to be their destination. A small sign above a cheap door read ‘Worthing’s Lamps’. In the window were a few different models of lanterns along with price tags attached to each. A ‘help wanted’ sign sat in the window to the left while the lanterns flickered with light at its side. The bricks seemed tired and grey, black smoke having stained most of the place including the window panes. The gutters were broken and one end hung down allowing any water that were to drain into it, to just fall to the pavement as a mini waterfall rather than being taken down the grids. It was a shambles of a business, but from the looks of things, this was the office of London’s leeries.

Jack took the door knocker and beat the door thrice with it. A small slide opened to reveal a pair of eyes on the other side. The voice that belonged to this person gave Jack a friendly greeting before closing the slide and unlocking the door. The six of them walked inside where they realised the leerie to let them in was non other than Angus. This leerie was a good friend of Jack’s and had met the Banks on a few occasions. They all had thought he was quite a charming lad that was probably the only person to be more innocent as an adult than Jack.

“Everyone’s here, they’re all downstairs, come on.” Angus lead them down a set of stairs off to the side of the room into a basement. This space was much larger than the room upstairs, clearly expanding underneath other properties rather than just its own. In the room, just over 50 lamplighters were waiting, chatting quietly, barely disturbing the peace of the dimly lit room. Candles were dotted at regular intervals along the wood panelled walls with a large table in the centre. Around this table, although they were quite squashed together, sat enough chairs for about 60 people, presumably for all the leeries as well as whatever administrative staff and visitors would be there at a time. This however meant that once someone was sat at a chair, they were pretty much right up against the wall behind them if they were sitting on the left or right hand side. Against the back wall, lockers were lined up around a set of bookshelves, while the wall from which the stairs were up against, simply had a big poster on it for the company while the right wall had a door leading somewhere else. The walls were sparsely dotted with drawings and the odd photograph of various leeries both past and present, while little trinkets and keepsakes were placed along a long narrow shelf, wrapped all the way around the room. The rather low ceiling and stone floor would’ve made it feel quite claustrophobic, but the warmth inside and the rugs over most of the floor instead made it feel cosy more than anything else.

When the leeries noticed them, there were a few light hearted cheers.

“Good timing mate”, one had said, “it looks like a storm’s brewing out there.” As if on cue, a rumble of thunder shook the foundations as the roar of heavy rain came crashing down.

“Damn, that was excellent timing.”

“Ok, never mind that. There’s a reason I called you all here.” Jack began, “Mr Blight is back.” The room turned dead silent. All the leeries looking equally horrified as if someone had just murdered Jack right in front of them.

“BLIGHTY!” One leerie had blurted. There was a few moments of stunned silence before he heard a soft voice,

“So that’s why you look a mess.” Jack sighed at the comment.

“Yeah, that’s a long story for later. But right now, we have a bigger problem. This is Georgie Banks.” As soon as he mentioned the name, everyone was on edge, then upon seeing him, they winced at the state of him.

“I only hope he’s not too far gone yet, but we might be able to save him.” He was given a few determined nods as the leeries cleared the table for Michael to lay him out. They all stood around it, ready for whatever they had planned. Jack turned to the Banks with a warning look,

“Just so you know, this is gonna be weird.” With that, he joined the leeries around the table and they began.

The lamplighters all closed their eyes and held their hands out over Georgie. All of a sudden, the candles began to flicker and go out, plunging the room into almost total darkness, the only light coming from up the stairs behind them. A strong wind began to gather and blew around in powerful gusts as the air turned unbearably cold. Hissing and wailing in the wind became very human. Whispers and panic spreading through the room like a disease. It sounded so human and it sounded like English, but they couldn’t bring themselves to understand what the words even meant. It was as if they’d lost the ability to understand normal speech, for the words simply turned into mindless gibberish. Mindless but worried. Mindless but frantic. Mindless but scared. Something was wrong. Something had to be wrong. They looked to Jack who appeared to be in pain. His brow furrowed as sweat beaded on his forehead. Although the others were silent in the process, Jack started to whisper something under his breath. A hissing, gentle hum flowed from his lips and as it reached the ears of his friend on his right, Angus’ eyes flew open as he practically screamed,

“NO!” Jack’s eyes shot open as they burned a golden glowing light, dazzling the room like the sun. A rumbling shook the structure as Jack’s hands lowered to Georgie’s head. Angus desperately tried to pry his arms away but the power was too strong, it was like trying to reposition a statue. He frantically shook the other leeries, crying,

“STOP! STOP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! WHY ARE YOU LETTING THIS HAPPEN?!” Jack placed a hand on each side of Georgie’s head as Angus begged him not to, but he couldn’t hear. The Banks watched in terror as the light intensified in Jack’s eyes and travelled down his arms towards Georgie. The light entered his body and, for a moment, his eyes lit up with the same dazzling light as in Jack’s. Then all at once, everything stopped. The wind dropped and leeries opened their eyes. There was a moment of silence as the light faded from Jack’s eyes and he collapsed to the floor in a heap. Angus practically fell with him, sobbing as he tried to shake him awake.

“Nonononono! Why did you do that?! Why did you do that?! Why did you do that?! Please no! Please dear God, NO! Wake up! Wake up! PLEASE! WAKE UP!” He was in hysterics and he lay on Jack’s chest weeping.

“Why did you do that?” His broken voice and shaken sobs cut through the otherwise silent room. The quiet distraught mumblings continued as the Banks stared in terror as they tried to understand what was going on, while the other leeries seemed to know. They all removed their hats, some cursed quietly under their breaths at the realisation, while the more pious ones amongst them made a sign of the cross. Angus’ pleading voice became quiet and weak as he asked again,

“Why did you do that?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s all kicking off now. Thanks for reading, I really appreciate it. I hope you’re all enjoying reading this as much as I am writing this. Thanks again and I’ll see you next Saturday.


	5. Losing Sight

How long had it been? Nobody really knew. A few hours? But it didn’t really matter. After the ritual, the leeries had laid out Jack on a couch in the storage room that connected to the main basement. They’d cleaned up the blood and dirt the best they could without being able to give him a change of clothes. However, they all had had to go to work, leaving the Banks sitting around the room with Jack. But there was someone else too. Angus had refused to leave, and even had one of his friends cover his route. Of course the same was set up for Jack as well. But Angus now sat on the floor, next to the couch, resting his head there as he held Jack’s hand. His face was still stained with tears but he had fallen completely silent.

The leeries hadn’t really bothered to take him away from him. He was the youngest after all. Most of the leeries treated him like he was their son. While the others were all between twenty nine and forty one years old, Angus was only eighteen. It was his first year working and he was always so eager. But since he had no father, the leeries were basically his family, a collection of dads, especially Jack. In all of the chaos, nobody seemed to have remembered that the Banks still had no idea what was going on. So now they just sat around quietly, some in chairs and some on the floor, waiting to find out more specifically, what bad thing had just happened.

Michael didn’t know what to say. He was grateful for his son to still be alive, but had he known all this would happen, he wouldn’t have been so quick to let them do it. He couldn’t really say he wouldn’t let them at all, after all, it was his son! But he felt like it would’ve taken a bit more persuading to allow Jack to do such a thing. He looked to Georgie. He was curled up on a rug in the corner. The leeries suggested he get some rest, so he went to sleep almost instantly. John and Annabel had taken to sitting and leaning against the wall, where they stared at the floor, deep in thought and Jane was doing much the same from the armchair. Michael was sat on an old dining chair. It wasn’t particularly comfortable, but it was the least of his concerns. He was busy keeping a mental tally of how many times he’d been confused, terrified, or wishing for the world to go back the way it was, over the last two days. Part of him wasn’t even sure if he wanted to know anymore, but of course, the morbid curiosity and need to protect his family, forced him to ask,

“What happened?” When nobody reacted to his question or looked like they’d heard it, he wasn’t sure if he had even said it out loud. But after a few more moments of nothing, Angus raised his head from the couch and turned to face him.

“He was too far gone,” his voice was trembling and tears threatened to spill again, “he was too far gone and Jack wanted to save him so badly. I don’t know why. But he gave Georgie his light.”

“What does that mean?” Jane asked.

“Everyone has some light to live. Leeries have more than normal so we can afford to give some away. It puts us down to being a normal person but it can save another. But he was so far gone. Even with all of us working together, it wasn’t enough. So Jack gave his light to him. I don’t know how much, but we’ll see when he wakes up...

If he wakes up.”

“How will we know?”

“If he’s blind.” He was met with a few blank stares. “When you give it away, you lose the ability to see the light. If you give away too much, you lose the ability to see at all. And if that’s happened, he has nothing left and he’ll be consumed by the darkness.” His voice dropped so low, they almost couldn’t hear him, “if that happens, he’ll be dead by the end of the day.” Michael tried not to panic,

“But he’s a leerie, he told me that he can’t die from anything but age!”

“That’s because of his light! Without that, he’s a normal person. With absolutely no light, dying becomes easier than talking.”

“Isn’t there something we can do?!”

“No..” tears began to spill down Angus’ cheeks as he lost hope, “as far as we know, there’s nothing you can do about it.” The breath caught in Michael’s throat. He hadn’t let himself believe it was so bad, but now there was no denying it. He couldn’t believe Jack would do so much for them. Why? They once again fell into a tense silence. They couldn’t say how long they stayed like that. But they were all so lost in thought, that when they heard the knock on the door, it startled everyone. Nobody made a move to answer it, but Angus mumbled a dejected, ’come in’. The door swooped open to reveal a rather tall leerie along with a woman. A woman they all recognised to be the officer that had interviewed them all the day before: Rose.

She strode in swiftly and pulled Angus into a tight embrace, rocking slightly as he cried against her. It was in this moment that he realised how similar they looked and recalled the fact that Angus didn’t have a father, but never mentioned a mother. Considering how old Rose looked, he figured she was probably his mum. She sat with him on the floor talking quietly to him, enough so that only they could hear. Michael, however, was brought back to reality by the voice of the leerie, or Joey as he was called, that had accompanied Rose to the door.

“It’s half seven, don’t you two need to go to work?” Jane and Michael looked at each other deciding what to do. Neither of them wanted to leave. The children were off school and since Ellen was ill, she couldn’t look after them. That left them with the option of leaving them with the leeries, but considering the circumstances, that wasn’t the best idea either. Not to mention the fact that neither of them wanted to leave Jack knowing he could die while they were gone.

“Actually, can I borrow your phone? I think I’ll just phone in sick today.”

“Yeah sure, come with me.” Michael rose from his seat and Jane followed, presumably to do the same as him.

They followed the man up the stairs who directed them to a phone behind the front desk of the office. Jane went first, then Michael. Thankfully, he didn’t do this very often, so his boss wasn’t particularly suspicious of the occasion and he got away with it without a hitch. As they were finishing up, they spotted Angus and Rose leaving the office together. Joey waved goodbye to them but sighed as they left.

“It’s a shame really. This must be his first time.” Michael wanted to know more so he carefully pressed for a bit more information.

“We’ve lost quite a few leeries over the years to things like this. But he’s not even been here a year. He probably never even knew Kate.” That was the second time a leerie mentioned knowing her.

“What happened to her? She was my wife. Jack almost told me last night, but ended up not doing it.” Joey’s head dropped.

“I’m not surprised. He’s always felt so guilty about it.” He paused for a moment, scratching his stubble uncomfortably, trying to think of the best way to continue. “I’m assuming you met Mr Blight last night, you know, big black sludge monster? He’s supposed to have some fancy Greek name, but we’d rather not have him sound so terrifying.” Michael nodded, “Well, we know him well. He’s always trying to destroy the light around here. Not sure why he cares so much about London but that’s beside the point. Over the years, we’ve all had to fight him a bit, and so have the generations before us. But one day, he made a surprise attack. Jack and Kate were on the other side of London at the time. Non of us really know what happened. He’s never actually told us. All we know is that Blight killed her. He felt so bad about it but he never said why.” The words flew around Michael’s head. How had he not known this?

“So when he started trying to save Georgie, we all knew this would happen. He was too far gone, Jack wasn’t going to let another member of the Banks family die like that. Angus doesn’t know about it, so I guess he wouldn’t have expected it. But we all knew there wasn’t going to be another outcome.”

“That’s what he meant by ‘cover story’.” He muttered to himself, not realising that they had heard him.

“What was that?” Jane asked. Joey adjusted his blue shirt and continued,

“Dr Farthing dealt with her. He knows all about this stuff, so when anything happens, he comes up with a story to cover it up. He usually says it’s a heart attack. In fact, that’s the sort of thing Rose does, but she does it with the police. By the way, don’t worry, the police won’t be calling you. She’s covered up the case.” The last part barely meant anything. Michael just sat down on the nearest chair. He couldn’t believe Jack had been so involved in his life without even knowing it. He’d actually been with her when she died. And now to make up for it, he sacrificed himself for Georgie. He didn’t really know how he felt. Some sort of empty, emotionless grief swirled within him. He didn’t know whether or not to be angry. Jack didn’t deserve that. No, this Mr Blight guy did however. He wanted to make him pay. He wanted him to make him suffer. His wife was gone and now he was losing his friend. And he was determined to make it obvious to that heartless thing, exactly how he felt about that.

“HE’S AWAKE!” An urgent cry came from John as he stood at the top of the stairs, and as their frazzled minds made sense of the words, they all rushed down the stairs to see what was going on. They quietly made their way into the room for fear of startling them, and there he was. Jack had managed to push himself up into a sitting position with the children’s help, but he didn’t look well. He looked pale, with dark rings around the eyes. His weak arms trembled slightly as he sat up and each breath seemed to rattle inside his ribs. Coughing made his voice hoarse and laboured each breath to the point it was painful. But the worst part was his eyes. Where they were once a deep brown, they were now just the opposite. A milky white layer covered his irises and pupils. It didn’t take a genius to tell you he was blind. And they all knew what that meant.

Making their way over to sit near him, their steps were so careful and quiet that he didn’t even notice them approaching. Without his sight, he had no idea that they were even in the room with him. Nobody really thought of that until he started talking to Annabel and Georgie, who he knew where with him. Their conversation was fairly plain at first. The children asked how he felt, and he confirmed that he couldn’t see. He didn’t have long and something was really bothering him. So in a low voice, he made his confession,

“Look, don’t go telling your father or Jane about this. At least, not until I’m gone,” everyone tensed up. They weren’t mean to hear this, but nobody made an attempt to leave for fear of being heard. “I don’t want to die having never told anyone this but-“ he took a deep breath, “ok. When your mother died, it was my fault.” Everyone in the room went pale, clearly not expecting that. 

“It can’t be your fault. What even happened?” With a tremor in his voice and his scruffy hair falling in his face, he continued,

“We’d just been talking when Blight appeared. I’d been too busy clowning around that I didn’t even notice until it was too late. He shot her down and just... left.” For the first time in his life, he could’ve sworn he saw tears in Jack’s eyes. Real tears. He’d never seen him so genuinely upset, and the sight shook him to the core.

“I should’ve been able to save her. I could’ve given her my light. But I was a coward. I was afraid of dying and did nothing. I just sat with her and let her die in the street. I just let her...” his voice trailed off as he leant forward and held his head in his hands. Everyone was stunned and Michael couldn’t help the anger beginning to grow inside him. Jack was his friend, sure, but really? He’d been clowning around and let her get hit, then he didn’t even try to save her?!

“I know it’s a lot, but I had to tell someone. Please don’t tell your father, at least not yet.” Oh, and now he wanted to hide it from him?!

“Oh I already know.” Jack tensed up and spun around to face Michael’s direction. Without being able to actually see him, he wasn’t able to look him in the eye, and although he couldn’t help that, it still didn’t infuriate him any less.

“How long have you been there?!” Looking at his panic stricken face, he still did not find himself softening as he thought he would.

“Since before you even started talking.” Words started to spew out. Tumbling past his lips faster than he thought they would. He didn’t care if he’d regret them later or not. “You let her get hit?! And then you left her to DIE?! And when did you plan on telling me? Oh wait, you weren’t going to, you wanted MY children to tell me after YOU died!”

“Michael!” Jane warned.

“No! I’m not just ignoring this. You killed her! And you chose to hide it! You disgust me! What kind of man would do that?!” Jack’s face was a mess of guilt. The shame worsening with each word out of Michael’s mouth. Michael couldn’t even think of enough to say to express his anger. Meanwhile, Jack knew a lot of words that he wanted to say, but couldn’t bring himself to say them. Any defence he could make would only make things worse. So as his heart ached, his eyes welled and his voice broke, he spoke in a quiet pleading voice, the closest thing to something helpful to say,

“I’m sorry.”  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
“You’re sorry?”  
“YOU’RE SORRY? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! ‘I’M SORRY’ IS NOT GOING TO BRING HER BACK YOU BASTARD! SHE’S DEAD! SHE’S-“ all at once, his anger fell apart. She’s dead. A whole new whirlwind of emotion mingled with his already toxic mixture. If he’d looked at Jack, he would’ve seen the tears staining his cheeks as he looked to the floor. But in the moment, he couldn’t have cared less about the man he used to call: friend. As all the eyes in the room were drawn to Michael, he started to feel overwhelmed. A crushing weight fell to his shoulders and suddenly, he felt like he couldn’t breathe.

“I’m done.” Grabbing his coat, he stormed out the room. Jack immediately tried to get up and follow but in his haste, he nearly fell. Jane caught him and sat him back down; he was in no state to go running after him. Heavy footsteps could be heard making their way up the stairs along with the door opening and closing again. He was gone. No doubt about it. They all just sat in silence. What the hell just happened?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we’re at over 100 hits now. Yay! I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: thank you for reading and I’ll see you next Saturday.


	6. Losing Light

Rain. Why did it have to rain so much? Damnit England! Michael walked through the puddles with a certain determination in his stride. Or at least, anyone walking past would’ve thought that. In reality, it was a white hot anger. After storming out of the office, Michael had gone home to collect his things and went to work, telling his boss that he had started feeling better and that he had decided to come in after all. He was really in need of the distraction, although it hadn’t helped much. Michael didn’t want to be angry, he didn’t particularly enjoy it. But he couldn’t choose to be cheerful. Not after that morning. He’d deliberately tried to hide from anyone that knew him, hoping that nobody would know where he was. The last thing he wanted was anyone chasing after him to try and resolve the argument. It couldn’t be resolved and he would just have to go back to normal when the initial anger had passed. But it could never actually be fixed.

Michael trudged through the rain heading for home. He figured Jane would have stayed with the leeries and kept the kids with her. As he arrived on Cherry Tree Lane, it felt like he’d been gone for an age. He approached the door when he noticed a bike still chained up outside. He’d almost forgot that Jack had left it there when they went to the office. Coming closer for a better look at it, he noticed the handlebars. A name had been crudely carved into it with some kind of small blade: GERTIE. As if he was trying to find a reason to be angry, he found the name almost insulting. Of course he was childish enough to name a bloody bike, after all, he was too busy clowning around to save Kate. He wanted to face him again and really show how he felt, but the bike would have to do.

He started kicking it and pulling it by the main body away from the fence where it was chained. Each pull sent the chain scratching the metal while he stamped and beat the bike. Soon enough, Michael found he had crushed the wheels beyond repair. Tearing the basket off and throwing it into the street behind him, his attention turned to the handle bars which, after the relentless beating they had already took, were quite easily ripped off and bent out of shape, along with shattering the light on the front. Once he’d ripped the seat apart and broken both his ladder and lighting stick in half, he was finally satisfied. Giving it a last kick for good measure, he stomped back inside the house to sulk. But he’d never admit to that. He was just going to do some work.

Slamming the front door behind him, Michael put away his things and stalked back into the living room, where he dropped down onto the couch in a huff. It was so quiet. The ticking of the clock was somehow the loudest thing in the house. It was strange, normally when he got home from work, he’d be greeted by the children who’d recount all kind of tall tales from the day. Ellen would be making dinner and after a little while, Jane would most likely join them for the evening before going to her own home. They’d have fun and smile and everything would be perfect. But it wasn’t looking like it would go back to that any time soon.

He looked out the window to see the lamp was lit. The leeries had done a good job covering Jack’s route. Hopefully when Jack died, the replacement would be less of an ass. After all, there was a lot of people in the slump that deserved the job more than him. Had he really just thought that? For God sake, couldn’t he just be angry and stay angry? His mind started to fill with doubt, like how he probably shouldn’t have destroyed Jack’s bike. It must’ve been expensive. But he destroyed his life! It’s not like he deserved much better.

Across town, Jane was wandering in the rain, crossing off a mental checklist in her head: the bank, the police station, her house, the market. Each one was further from the office than the last. She thought for a moment and figured the next closest place would be back at Michael’s house. If he’d just gone home to sulk, she’d kill him. So she started to whip up the motivation and set off in a determined stride to her childhood home. After Michael had run off, they all assumed he’d come back. They decided to give it an hour before they got worried. In the end, they’d been reluctant to believe he wouldn’t come back and so left it much later. But when the clock struck five, they realised they’d have to go find him. She didn’t want the children to catch a cold, so she left them at the office with the leeries while she went out to look for Michael in the rain.

Honestly, she’d been quite surprised by his outburst. And she had to admit, she was appalled to think he believed Jack was required to die for Kate. Nobody has the right to expect that sort of thing of anyone. She felt awful. Jack had been so upset and had really wanted to go with her, but he could barely stand. She hated seeing anyone sad, but to see someone who was always so cheerful, and to see him completely broken, was enough to break her own heart. She wished they hadn’t sat in on the conversation. Then none of this would’ve happened. But alas, you can’t change the past.

When she finally arrived to the house, she was met by a very upsetting sight. Jack’s bike lay destroyed by the fence. Every part of it had been broken off or contorted horribly out of shape. That bike was Jack’s pride and joy, and now it lay in pieces in their yard. She made a mental note to see if anything could be done about it. Peering through the windows, the lights inside were on. She wondered if Michael was really there or if they’d just left the lights on when they originally left. Walking up the steps, she decided not to knock. If he was hiding in there, he’d be sulking and probably wouldn’t answer the door if she knocked. She took her own set of keys out of her pocket and unlocked the door, stepping cautiously inside.

The house was quiet and the ground floor, upon inspection appeared to be empty. The front door still had Jack’s blood splattered against it and the carpet was covered in soot from their trips up and down the chimney. She made another mental note to get all that cleaned up too. Taking a look up the stairs, more lights appeared to be on, so she followed them up to the landing to check the other rooms. Upon arriving at each door, she opened them one by one, to find the rooms unoccupied, until she came to the study. It was a small room that had mostly been used for Michael to do his art. But ever since the slump, it had fallen out of use.

Opening the door a creak, Jane could see Michael sat inside with his head in some sort of book. From her position, it appeared to be a binder of some of father’s old documents that Michael seemed to be studying. He was surrounded by other books he’d raided from the shelves and figured that he was probably reading them as an excuse to stay on his own. He looked tired and held a frustrated countenance that she would normally have found comical, but it was hardly the time to laugh. Gathering the courage, she gently knocked on the partially opened door.

“Hi Michael.” His head lifted from the book, seemingly surprised by her presence.

“What are you doing here?”

“It’s nice to see you too. I just came to see if you were alright.” He continued reading and waved his hand dismissively at her,

“Yes well I’m fine so you can go now.” Great. He was sulking. Sighing to herself, she continued,

“Well clearly you’re not, I just saw what’s left of the bike outside.”

“Yes, I said I’m fine now, didn’t I?” He huffed.

“You can’t just hide from everyone forever you know.”

“I am well aware of that and have no intention of trying. I do have children to raise after all.”

“So why are you still here sulking? We’ve been worried about you.” Michael exhaled slowly. She knew him too well and would have a come back to anything he could possibly say.

“I’m not sulking. I’m trying to calm down a bit and be the bigger man, like you would want.” He hissed, swiftly shutting the binder.

“Being the bigger man would imply that you’d leave and then come back to deal with the problem rationally.”

“Who said I’m not coming back? How do you know if I’ve calmed down yet or not.” It was starting to get exhausting so Jane decided to put a stop to this before she snapped completely.

“We both know that you’re waiting until you know he’s gone. You can’t let him pass on without sorting this out.” She knew she’d hit the nail on the head when he didn’t answer back. “I know you’re upset that he didn’t help her more, but you’ve got to understand-“

“Understand what?! That he was being too immature to pay attention to the danger he knew about?! That he didn’t even try to help her?!”

“You know that’s not true!” Jane’s voice was sharp and stern, but she didn’t shout, much to her own surprise. She had to keep control of this. “He’d go mad if he spent every waking moment worrying about maybe getting attacked. That’s paranoia, and you’d complain about that if that was the case. And another thing: you can’t expect him to die for anything. Nobody is required to die for anyone and nobody has the right to expect them to. It’s his own life, and if he couldn’t do it, that’s none of your concern. What good would it have made anyway?! Kate would be alive, but Jack would be dead instead. Either way, someone was going to die.”

“Well he could’ve tried harder.”

“Really? He could’ve tried harder to be ready and know about a surprise attack? He should’ve tried harder when it was physically impossible to save her on his own or get her to help in time? You have to understand, nothing more could be done.” Michael was silenced once again. This time, she moved a little closer to place a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“I know you’re upset. I can’t even begin to imagine what it feels like. And I know it’s hard, but you can’t blame him. You know if the situation was different, he would have saved her. You should be blaming this Blight creature for causing this. You can’t tell me that he doesn’t care, when he’s tried to make up for this by giving his life to save Georgie. And you know what else?”

“What?” He snapped.

“He tried to follow you. When you ran off, he tried to go after you to sort this all out.” Michael furrowed his brow in a mixture of confusion and surprise.

“Why didn’t he come?”

“Isn’t it obvious?! He could barely stand! We had to force him to stay so he wouldn’t hurt himself and it took a lot to keep him there. He was willing to give everything to fix this. And here you are, sulking.” He didn’t dare look her in the eye, but his stern expression had softened considerably. “You can’t just forget about this. We both know he’s not got long. We’ve already lost the light outside. We need to go back and sort this all out.” Then, Michael did what Jane least expected him to do. He laughed.

“God, you sound just like mother.”

“Well one of us has to, and it’s damn well not going to be you.” She chided, “come on, let’s go.” When Jane headed to the door, she smiled to find Michael followed her. And he followed her down the stairs, to the door and out into the street. He cringed slightly when he spotted the remains of the bike, but they continued nonetheless.

The walk into London was yet again a peaceful one. Since all this started, it seemed like they were always hiding through the day and living at night when the rest of the world slept, for it was another walk when they didn’t see another soul amongst the streets. They had started to mindlessly chit chat about all sorts of things as they approached the Thames. They wandered back onto Liberty Street and headed all the way down to the little office tucked away in the corner of the culdesac. The office was quiet and she wondered which leeries had stayed late with the children. They’d been gone for a while and she figured they must’ve had to leave at some point to do their routes. Hopefully, the children weren’t on their own. Taking the door knocker, she banged thrice and when the slider opened to check who was there, it was a peculiar sight. The eyes peering through seemed to be a bloodshot red. It closed as fast as it had opened, the door was unlocked and the pair were given entry.

Inside, the mood was certainly low. John, Annabel and Georgie sat at the back of the main room at the desk. They all looked like they’d been crying and lay over the desk in various states of consciousness, as sleep tried to consume them. Angus sat at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the next floor with his head in his hands as his body shuddered with small broken sobs. The leerie that let them in, Joey, stood with his arms crossed staring at the floor. They watched him kick and fold up the edge of the door mat as he tried to find the words he needed, but they never came. Jane’s heart dropped as she began to realise what was going on.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” The leerie looked at them with an unbearable pain in his eyes.

“He just got worse after you left. Started hallucinating, couldn’t sit up. Started getting pains in his legs ‘n arms. Then, ‘bout an hour ago, stopped breathin’.” Joey barely managed to finish speaking before he too started sobbing again. The breath caught in Michael’s chest. They were too late. Jack died feeling like he’d done something wrong. Looking to Jane, she was already beginning to bawl her eyes out and tried to cover her face. Michael pulled her into a much needed hug as he tried to disguise his own distress with a blank look.

“Dr Farthing came over. Him and some of the lads took him off to the morgue. They’ll bury him tonight. He said they wanted to do it quick before anyone noticed, or they’ll start questioning how he died. But- he’s gone. That’s it.” He wiped the back of his hand across his face to get rid of the tears, but they were quickly replaced by another torrent tracking down his face. The room felt so cold as Angus’ mumblings of ‘why did he do that?’s cut through.

Jane didn’t know what to think. She tried to speak, but when the words didn’t come, the tears did. She thought when it happened, her mourning would’ve been more dignified and stoic, but she cried like a child with choking sobs. But she wasn’t ashamed. She didn’t care enough about dignity to feel shame. She wanted Jack back. There was an unbearable numbness but at the same time, a pain through her soul sent her doubling over, racking her body with sobs. ‘Where are you?’ She had cried out in her mind. ‘Where have you gone?’ Of coarse, there was no answer.

Michael had nothing left inside to give. A raw emptiness nibbled at his insides like a hungry rat. He should’ve gotten there sooner. Hell, he should’ve never left! His irises were threaded scarlet and his eyeballs hung heavily in their sockets. As the grief consumed him, he found his whole body hung limp like each limb weighed twice as much as it had before and just moving it was a slow and painful effort. He only wished he could’ve done more. Said something less hurtful at least. For God sake, the last thing he did before he left was to call Jack a bastard. It wasn’t fair for him. Jack had always been so cheerful. He didn’t deserve what grief the Banks had brought him. He’d done so much for them, cared for his children, picked them up when any of them were down, he treated Jane like a princess. Hell, he catapulted himself on a ladder up Big Ben to help save the house! Why had he ever thought he didn’t care. He’d always cared so much. And now, that was it. He’d given his life for his son. And why?

Because he felt guilty that he didn’t die.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I’m a bit late today but it’s no biggie. Thanks for reading. Ooh drama! I’ll see you all next week!


	7. The Rise

“He’s here! He’s here!”

A little girl jumped with excitement in her bedroom. Looking out the window, her highlight of the day was approaching. It was always the same time in warmer months and then another time in winter. She would stay up late and wait if she had to, but she never missed it. Twice a day. Once in the morning. Once in the evening. The young boy would follow Bert all over London, learning everything he could. How she wished to be so lucky. A man like Bert had so much to share, so much to teach. One day you’d be cleaning chimneys, then you’d be off the draw in the park before selling kites and performing as a one man band. But twice a day, every day, without fail, they did the best job: lamp lighting. Why was it the best? It wasn’t particularly fun or interesting, and you had to walk around in all kinds of weather at awkward times. But it was the best. Because she could see him.

A young boy with scraggly black hair and a flat cap plopped on top of his head. But his dirty clothes only made his shining smile more prominent. Every time they passed, his bright eyes would rise to the window and his grin would widen. It was magical. All he did was smile. But he always did when she stood in the window. In that moment, she could almost believe she was making him smile. Although they’d never said a word to each other, they were somehow close friends. And before they left, to top it all off, a little wave would come her way and everything else would fade. It wasn’t much, only about ten seconds each time, but the moment was magical. How she wished to go out and meet him, but her father wouldn’t allow it. He never liked anyone of a lower status coming to his house, especially not a child. In fact, whenever Bert came to clean the chimney, father would make the boy sit and wait outside as if he was some hooligan that would run rampant. But she knew better. He was too polite for that sort of nonsense.

Many a time did she try to speak with him. She would call out the window and fly paper airplanes to him, but father always caught them, so he could never respond. Father felt like at her age, while she thought about boys, that it was best to keep her from anyone that wasn’t a suitable partner by his standards. And that meant this boy. But one thing he could never do, was stop him walking by each day, to give a smile and a wave. And that was the best present anyway. But she did want a bit more. She just wanted to know his name.

“Jack...”

Jane stood quietly by the grave. She had hoped he’d get something a bit more dignified. But it was the best that Farthing could do. If too much attention came to the grave of a leerie, people could soon see through their secrets. So it was always best for Farthing to hide them away in the most private part of the cemetery. Joey hadn’t lied about them burying him quickly. He’d only been dead for a few hours, but he was already in his coffin and buried. The leeries had been so good and arranged a proper little service, even if they could only cobble something simple together. They had all lain some flowers out while the lamplighters had lit candles around the head stone. Goodbyes had been said, a song had been sung, and then everyone went home. All but Jane.

She traced her finger over the writing again.

‘The Nicest Man In London  
Jack Hackney  
October 5th 1899- April 17th 1934’

It was sweet really. With so many people who knew him, you’d think it would say more. 54 leeries plus the Banks family had gotten involved, yet it didn’t take long before everyone had agreed on what to have engraved. The idea came from Angus and not a single soul rejected it. So that’s what they got.

It was true. Jack had always been so nice. He always smiled, was always polite, he didn’t even kill spiders when he found them! Joey told her a little story about how, a few years back, he found a baby pigeon with a broken wing in a bin. He’d made a little splint out of the sticks of matches and thread. He bandaged it up, fed it, cared for it, and even carried it around in his jacket’s inside pocket while he worked, to keep it warm. After the bird made a full recovery, he tied a small red tag to it and set it free. Apparently, a few days later, he saw it again with its mother and every so often, it would find him, and drop off little gifts. Jack had a whole little box filled with buttons, badges, bottle caps and metal scraps, each one, a gift from the bird. The little bird, whom he had dubbed ‘Quill’, never failed to visit and had basically become his and the leeries’ mascot.

It was a sweet little story, but it did make her wonder how the world could move on without him. Even for this little pigeon it would be hard. He probably didn’t even understand what happened. All he knew was that Jack had disappeared and he had nobody to give bottle caps to. She had to admit, she felt the same way. She’d seen death before. Both of her parents had passed away. But it was still so hard to understand. Not just from a philosophical or religious point of view, but it was always filling your mind with questions of how she could’ve let it happen. Of course she knew she hadn’t directly caused it, but that didn’t stop the niggling feeling that she could’ve done something about it. Something to prevent the whole thing. But for once, she accepted that it was impossible.

Her father was right. She shouldn’t have gotten involved with people of another status. She couldn’t really understand their life. There was so much that she’d never know or understand. So much that could hurt her. In fact, that just applied to all people. But Jack had been so different. She had felt like she knew everything about him. He had no dark secrets to hide. The only surprises he had were little things: like how he spoke Spanish and French fluently, or how he could do backflips, or how he could do the best John Barrymore impression you’ve ever seen. They were small things. Funny things. Cute things. But never scary. Not like all this. Not like all this.

Standing up again, she looked around the cemetery. The section was quite hidden and away from the other tombstones. According to Farthing, leeries that died from corruption had to be hidden. On the odd occasion that a random person was killed by Mr Blight, it wouldn’t look so suspicious to have them die of a ‘sudden heart attack’, but when so many leeries were killed that way, their graves had to be hidden so nobody would get suspicious. It was sickening to see how many had died over the years and still, the world didn’t know. Looking around her, there had to be nearly one to two hundred in that cemetery alone. God only knows how many were buried elsewhere. It was a terrible shame really. She’d been told that the leeries would fight against the night to protect the people, but from the looks of things, they could never win. They could only stop others from getting killed by putting themselves in the firing line. It was no wonder that leeries were chosen as children, no sane adult would decide to do the job when they always were hiring and mysteriously needing more people. Hell, last time they were at liberty street, there was still a ‘help wanted’ sign in the window,

As she began to wander, she noticed there were more graves for recent victims than for the past ones. She took out a notepad and pen from her pocket and started taking down dates of deaths. She went to each one, taking note of the date until she had one from all one hundred and forty two. It took her a while, but when she was done, she went to sit down on a bench and began to sketch on the next page. An L-shaped axis with the years along the bottom and the number of deaths up the side. She carefully plotted each piece of data and when she was finished and drew a curve along it for good measure, her findings startled her. In the earlier years, you’d only have one death every few years, but as time went on, there were more deaths per year and there were no longer any years without a death in them. What was worse was that the deaths weren’t increasing at a steady rate, they were climbing rapidly at an ever increasing rate. Another realisation crossed her mind, if the graph kept increasing the way it did, the curved line would have such a steep gradient, it would be perfectly straight up. And that would mean the number of deaths would be infinitely high. Everyone would be dead.

As a sense of panic started to set in, she desperately tried to reason with herself. This is why nobody likes maths! The graph couldn’t tell the future. There was no way to prove that there would be any more deaths. Of course she had evidence to suggest it might be true, like, literally all around the graveyard, but there was nothing definite. Right? Stuffing the notebook and pen back into her pocket, she stood up. No. Mr Blight wasn’t going to do that. At least not so soon. She’d probably have longer than she first feared before anything could happen. Still, it was probably a good idea to show the leeries if they didn’t already know.

With a final look to Jack, she turned and began to leave for home. But that was when she heard it. Nothing really at first. A slight hiss from underneath. Nothing distinct. A groaning wained through the wind, carried by the cold mist. Then she started to see it. All around her, small cracks began to appear in the soil. Insects disturbed from their rest came scuttling from the holes as something underneath them began to push through. Small mounds of earth would rise a fall. Pulsating. Beating like a heart. But when they were broken through, nothing appeared. It felt like forever before anything moved. Jane peered around the yard, beads of sweat forming with each hole she saw. Her voice failed and her legs froze. Each and every single hole had come up in a specific place: right in front of each and every headstone.

Looking to Jack’s she found it was the same case. Staring for a while, she prayed that it was something innocent. She couldn’t think what could be the cause, be she hoped something did, something that wouldn’t give her nightmares. But the world had not been nice to them all week, and it certainly wasn’t going to change now. The world wanted to spite her, so, erupting from the ground below, black spires pierced through the dirt. Each one, as sharp as knives. One, two, three four. One, two, three four. One, two, three four. Four spires from each hole sliced through the air. She let out a blood curdling scream as they stretched the holes open until they were gorges. The spires rose out and stood on the ground, lifting the bodies they acted as legs for. Each one, a large lump of black sludge with an unhealthy lack of weight to them. Each one was so slim she could see the pulsing ‘heart’ locked behind broken ribs. An elongated neck stretched from the torso rising high in the air before bending back down to inspect Jane. Plain heads with only two glowing white eyes on each came down to face her. Each one of the creatures was much taller than her, nearly 12 feet even with their necks bent down to see her. Then yet again, the rumbling came. Louder. Clearer. Coming from each one of the things. Over a hundred of them. A screeching was torn from each of their throats as the jaws ripped apart from their skull to let out a demonic shriek, piercing Jane’s ears and rattling her soul to the core.

This couldn’t be happening this couldn’t be happening this couldn’t be happening. Turning on her heel, she began to sprint out of the cemetery, but the creatures simply bounded after her like galloping spiders. Their enormous legs made quick work of keeping up with her and she knew that she couldn’t escape. But when you’re surrounded by screeching abominations, you’re never going to be brave enough to stop running and accept your fate. The only thing that could stop her was the world itself. As she reached the gates, a stone veiled by the night tripped her and sent her flying. Landing hard, she rolled, grazing every bit of her exposed skin and tearing both her coat and her knees wide open. The hard impact would definitely leave bruises, but as her followers approached, that was the furthest thing from her mind. With nothing else to do, Jane curled up on the ground and waited. Stamping surrounded her as she was nearly trampled by the mass of legs. But they didn’t stop. They kept running on past her. Then, as quick as their roaring pace had started, it was gone. Only their distant shrieks could be heard away in the distance. She lay there for about a minute before she dared open her eyes. They were really gone. Sitting up and looking around her confirmed that they were really actually gone. They hadn’t killed her. They hadn’t killed her? What had they seen that they wanted instead. But as she saw their track, seeing them heading for the exit, she looked out of the cemetery gates and realised what they had to decided to attack instead:

The city of London.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Saturday! Things are getting insane. Hope to see you next week! Have a nice day, buh-bye!


	8. Falling Embers

The screams! Dear God, the screams were incessant! Every street she turned down had people running for their lives. Jane knew those monsters weren’t going to let up, but she hadn’t thought it would get so bad. The monsters had ravaged London and were beginning to claim lives. Desperately, she tried to weave her way between monstrous legs, bodies and crashed cars. She had to find Michael, she had to find the children, and getting the leeries would be a good idea too. They may actually have an idea what was going on. She hated it. She hated being right. This was what her graph had predicted. Fuck maths! The end of the world was beginning. Was it the world? As she thought about it, she soon realised that she had no idea if it was even a nationwide issue, never mind global. She hoped it wasn’t. Why couldn’t she just be wrong for once?!

The sound of groaning metal broke through the air. A booming crunch. And then, a bell billowed through the dawn. Snapping her head round to see the source, Jane’s face drained of colour. Big Ben stood for only moments longer, flames bursting and billowing from the clock face. 5 of the monsters seemed to have climbed the tower and were tearing it apart. A thunderous roar tore through the clock tower as it exploded into a hellish fire. With a final creaking cry of agony, the Elizabeth tower came crashing down, Big Ben ringing through London for the last time. The shockwave of dust was immense. Jane could’ve cried at the sight, but she didn’t have the time.

A voice through the fire came calling,

“JANE! JANE BANKS!” She almost leapt at the thought of it being her family, but it wasn’t. A young leerie came sprinting through the flames, it was none other than Angus.

“There you are! Come on, we have to go! NOW!” She couldn’t speak before he grabbed her by the wrist, dragging to poor woman through the streets with him. Angus was covered in ash and carried a flaming torch with him. Other than that, he seemed to have no way to defend himself from the onslaught. Part of her wanted to get away. She had to find her family. But the thought of running from someone she recognised in the chaos wasn’t a particularly pleasant idea either.

“Where are we going?” She cried, the loud screams of London almost drowning out her voice.

“Worthing.” Was his response. Jane couldn’t believe her ears. No way in hell would it be safe at the office.

“WHAT?! But those things’ll destroy the office!”

“Not Worthing’s Lamps, we’re going to Worthing, as in the person that owns the place.” Jane decided she wasn’t going to get much more out of him until they actually got there. But she figured if this Worthing guy owned the business filled with the only people in London that understood the monsters, then he was probably a safe person to see. But then she realised,

“What about Michael and the children?!”

“Joey’s takin’ ‘em there now. I came out to find you.” As they dodged several falling roof tiles from a nearby house, they went right past Liberty street and came to the Thames. The tide was out and on the bank was a small wooden rowing boat. He couldn’t seriously expect them to sail that out of London. He looked at her, urgently gesturing to the boat.

“Get in.” He sat down and grabbed the oars as Jane pushed the boat out onto the water before hopping in. Angus started to row frantically as the screaming demons rampaged in the distance. London was beginning to be levelled completely. Countless buildings had already come crashing down, and the once magnificent skyline, was starting to look a bit flatter. The monsters proudly emitted what could only be described as hellish war cries. She could only hope that they wouldn’t follow then in the water. Whether they didn’t like water or they just didn’t see them, she didn’t know, but they didn’t chase the pair as they sailed away. She was terrified of being spotted, but she couldn’t help but relax as they started to get further up the river without having any problems. And as they started to get away from the centre of the action, both of them had finally started breathing properly again.

“We’re going to a place called Gravesend, it’s the safest place. But it’s about 30 miles away. And it’s going to take a while to row there.”

“How long?”

“Just under 10 hours.” She nearly had a heart attack when she heard that.

“They’re expecting us late. There weren’t any other options to get away. Joey took the van with your family, they’ll be there much faster, they’ll be alright.”

“Is there nowhere closer?”

“Not unless we want those things to find us. Plus, we need get to Worthing for him to help us. Otherwise we’re all as good as dead.” She didn’t know what was going on and it seemed like a good a time as any to ask.

“What’s going on? What were those things? It’s about time I know what’s going on.” Angus wasn’t sure what to say, but he just sighed in defeat and gave in to her demand.

“Ok. I should probably start with Mr Blight then. He’s been around for about as long as time itself. Obviously been going by other names through the years, though. We don’t know much about him, just that he’s an old evil dick. He uses the darkness to fight. That’s quite a big problem, ‘cos if you shine brighter lights, the shadows get stronger. If there’s enough darkness, which is almost all the time, then he can use it to kill anyone. That’s what he did to Georgie, and Jack gave him his light and took the darkness. Which is what killed him. What Blight has done now, is take control of everyone to ever have been killed by that darkness. But, he can’t control all of them all over the planet. He’s only strong enough to do it in London. Which is why we’ve gotta leave.”

“But what about all those other people.”

“We can’t. We’ll never make it out alive if we try.” Jane couldn’t believe what she was hearing. London was falling and they were running.

“Do we even have a way to stop them? Or are we giving up?”

“For now, we’re hiding. Not sure for how long, but that’s what we’ll have to do. Unless Worthing knows another way, there’s only one way to end this.”

“How?!”

“The Archlight. Someone with an incredible amount of light in them. But there not going to be easy to find. It has to be someone with leerie light and a purer light, like a childish innocence. That’s why Jack was so strong. He had the most innocence of us all. But he was never the Archlight. It would take...” his words trailed off as his eyes went wide.

“What?” Under his breath, Angus started to mutter to himself,

“Oh Jack, you clever clever boy.” 

“What?!”

“It’s Georgie. An actual child with all his innocence, as well as Jack’s light, which was already strong! Plus, they both knew Mary Poppins which adds to both of their lights! With all that combined, he’s the most powerful leerie out there! Georgie can stop this!”

“What?! We’re not putting him danger!” She said, probably a little too harshly as Angus backed down a bit and tried to defend his point.

“Look, I don’t even know how it would work. It’s something we’ll have to sort when we get there. Like I said, Worthing might have other options. Well just have to wait and see. For now though, we need to get there. Get some rest, it’s going to be a long journey.”

So she did just that. Jane’s sleep schedule had been all but destroyed since all this began. She wanted nothing more than to sleep, but it wasn’t nearly as peaceful as she wished. It took a long time for the sounds of screaming to die away completely, and after that, it took even longer for the smell of smoke to vanish as well. The one thing she did relish, was the gentle rocking of the boat. As she dreamt, she imagined it was Jack. They were sitting together, he had his arms wrapped around her and they were rocking gently back and forth. It was warm, nothing was wrong and she hadn’t just seen London fall. But of course that wasn’t true. But that didn’t mean that she couldn’t pretend for just a little while.

Part of it felt strange, knowing it could never happen in real life. They had barely become lovers when this all began. They were more like two friends with a crush on each other. She wished it had gone further, so she could’ve enjoyed it more while she had the time. But it was too late to think that. However, it didn’t stop her from regretting not doing more. Making more time for him and taking their relationship to a more serious level. Maybe she was just a bit frigid. The children always talked about how sweet they were together and how they couldn’t wait for him to be Uncle Jack. But she always brushed it off so she could stop them from gossiping or getting their hopes up. But as she thought, she realised, she’d probably done that so much, that she just ended up convincing herself rather than the children. She hadn’t missed Michael and Ellen’s knowing smirks or how John and Annabel often found excuses to leave them in a room alone, and Georgie. He wasn’t even discreet. He had actually come up to them from behind while they’d been sat on the couch, jumped up and tried to squish their heads together to kiss. It had been quite funny and it wasn’t like she didn’t want to, but she was afraid to make a move. Instead, she had told Georgie, rather harshly, to never do that again and not disturb them like that.

She was really going to miss it. His smile. His laugh. How he always wanted to make her happy. The way he made her heart skip a beat and the sun shine brighter. His winks, his touch, his jokes. All so intimate to her yet in reality, nothing more than a bit of fun. Neither of them had gone further than a hug, and they were the best part. So as she tried desperately to forget her situation and the flames behind her, she pretended he was at her side, holding her and telling her everything would be alright. And the best bit: in the moment, it would be totally true.


	9. Worthing’s Words

Tick

Tick

Tick

Tick

Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth. Michael didn’t know how long he’d been pacing the for. But he had an idea. He’d had to stop half way through and have a sit down to rest his feet on two occasions, before getting up and starting again. He refused to believe she wasn’t coming.

The whole thing had been quite chaotic. When the monsters attacked, he’d been at home with the kids. They tried to hide inside and hope they’d leave, but they didn’t. The street was swarmed and before he knew it, the leeries’ van had come tearing along the street to their house. Inside was Joey and Angus, who offered them a chance to escape. He’d almost forgotten about Jane but remembered at the last minute that she’d be at the grave yard. They tried to find her, really they did, but it was no use. Angus offered to search on his own while they and Joey got away. And by the time they had left, London was beginning to burn.

Joey explained where they were going on the way, and what those things were after he pressed the matter. They had arrived a while later and he really hoped this Worthing fellow could help. He seemed like a nice enough man. The older gentleman had looked to be about 50 and looked like a slightly plumper Albert Einstein. White scraggly hair and an equally bleached bushy moustache settled above his lips giving him a much older look. But his spritely nature and short figure made him seem much younger in contrast. He’d greeted them fondly, but had given Joey a saddened knowing look as they entered.

The reason why was clear when they got inside. Only five of the other leeries had managed to escape the city: Tom, Connor, John, Lucas and Freddie. So with Joey and hopefully Angus, that was seven. Seven, out of fifty four. Michael hoped more would arrive, but the chance was slim. All the leeries had been getting their pay checks at the office when the attack started. Although Joey and Angus left to get the Banks, the rest of the leeries had made their escape together. They tried to help people as they went, but according to the survivors, it hadn’t gone well. They had seen each one of them cut down and slaughtered by the corrupting black smog, while they were powerless to help. And you could tell from their hanging heads, grey eyes and slumped shoulders, that it had taken a toll on them.

So they were left to wait. It had been twelve hours since they had left, and there was still no sign of Jane and Angus. Joey had been sat in an armchair in the centre of the living room, muttering to himself about how he couldn’t lose anyone else as he anxiously bounced his leg. Michael could clearly see the tears threatening to spill and the tension only grew. He wished he could be like the children. Worthing had offered them a room to sleep in and all three had been asleep near enough instantly. But Michael hadn’t slept, and neither had the leeries. Worthing tried on many occasions to assure them that it wasn’t time to worry. If they didn’t have a car, they’d have to walk and it could take a few hours. But even with a logical argument, it can be hard to relax when you’ve had a two hour journey and ten hour long wait after seeing your city burn, and you’re still waiting.

Joey and Michael’s nervous habits had nearly dug a hole into the carpet when they heard the knock at the door. Before either of them could pile into the hall to answer it, Worthing was already there. Standing in the living room, they waited. The door opened and they heard him give a greeting. The door shut and then came a ‘right this way’. Through the door came a very tired pair, but that didn’t make it any worse to see them.

“JANE!”  
“ANGUS!”

With a surge of joy, Michael raced pulling Jane into the tightest hug he could provide. To say he was ecstatic was quite the understatement. An indescribable joy pulsed through his veins as his eyes watered. The relief both crushed and lifted a weight off of his heart as all at once, the world was put right. They stood there together for what seemed like forever, but it wasn’t long enough. Eventually they parted, just staring into each other’s eyes, relishing the fact that through all of it, they were still together.

Joey and Angus’ reunion was no less joyful. The two bounded to each other, jumping around and whooping like excited puppies. Angus practically jumped onto Joey for a hug, the taller man nearly toppling as he caught him.

“I thought you’d never get here!”

“Well we did row down the Thames so I expect it would take a bloody long time!” They started jumping around again before Angus remembered,

“Where are the others? Upstairs?”

“Yes, but-“ Angus was already halfway up before he saw the expression on Joey’s face turn to one of grief.

“What?” Angus’ heart began to shatter as he Joey’s eyes became damp, on the verge of his emotions spilling out again. He knew what he was going to say, but didn’t want to believe it.

“There’s only seven of us left now.” There it was. The words he’d dreaded. Their little reunion had been a victory overshadowed by a tragic loss. Forty seven leeries were dead in London. Forty seven. The number had been a simple one to understand, but to count it and know each number was a person...

“Seven?”

“Seven.”

“Who?!” He wasn’t sure why he asked. He’d been friends- no, family, with them all. Not one of their lives meant more to him than another, but he wanted to know. He needed to know. Who was left?

“Besides you and me, there’s Tom, Lucas, Connor, John and Freddie.” Angus’ knees went weak. His heart fell silent. Was he dying? His mind had completely stopped. Each face flashed in his vision. Jack. Peter. Aaron. Alex. David. Mason. Yatesy. Countless more. All different: their faces, backgrounds, ages, views, skills and talents. All brilliantly perfect. All snuffed. Every single one. No more birthdays. No more banter. No more practical jokes. No more more bad cooking. No more good cooking. No more family. All fifty four of them had lived within ten minutes of each other, practically owning a few streets in London. They had played games, told stories and helped each other on countless occasions. And now they were gone. Angus couldn’t bear it. He’d only been working there a year, but it felt like he’d known them for a lifetime. He could name each one of their full names, their best talents, where they lived and if they had a family of their own. His heart was crushed and he couldn’t breathe. No. No. No. No. No. NO! THIS COULDN’T BE HAPPENING!

Michael watched helplessly as the youngest leerie dropped onto the stairs with a loud thud, crumpling in on himself as he started to hyperventilate. Joey was by his side in an instant, pulling Angus close as he cried into his arms, physically unable to express exactly how he felt. He was in hysterics as the panic washed over him and clung desperately to one of the few friends he still had, like a small child.

“Don’tdodon’tgodon’tgodon’tgodon’tgodon’tgodon’tgo!”

“Hey Hey”, he soothed, “I’m not going anywhere. We’re not going to lose anyone else. I promise.” They sat there like that for a while, Joey rocking him slowly back and forth while rubbing circles on his back and humming softly, gradually calming his broken muffled sobs. He looked to Worthing, then to Jane and then Michael.

“We need to stop this. We’re going to kill Blight and every one of those God damned creatures! Even if it’s the last thing we ever do!” There was a fire in his eyes. A flame ignited out of fear and a need for vengeance. Nobody would take that away from him. He was even willing to die for it.

“We need a plan.” Worthing sighed, knowing that Joey was not willing to wait any longer.

“Alright then, go wake the others and come to the kitchen.” Joey nodded before getting up with Angus, cradling him as they walked up the stairs to gather their friends. Michael watched them go before looking to Worthing.

“Is there really no way to undo this? This is all so crazy, there must be a way!” Worthing rubbed his temples and made his way to the kitchen, followed by Jane and Michael.

“I wish there was, but we don’t know. We just try to keep the world from knowing. Avoiding a mass panic is all we’re good at doing.”

“But look at London!” Jane debated, “I’d consider that to be mass panic. And there’s seriously nothing to be done?”

“We can try whatever we want, but we can’t bring anyone back.” Jane and Michael fell silent, no longer wanting to have their hopes crushed any further. God, how they just wished they could go home and have a cup of tea, but home was probably a pile of rubble by that point. Still, it was only bricks and mortar, nothing to get attached to, right? They had their family, unlike most. They had to be grateful for what they had.

A few minutes later, after their melancholy reunion, the remaining seven leeries came back downstairs and to the kitchen. All of them were looking a bit worse for wear, but they were all seething with an equal amount of fire. Gathering around the small central table, they all began to discuss the matter.

“There has to be a way stop them! We at least need to make sure Blight can’t make any more of those- things!” Freddie had argued.

“We don’t have anyone strong enough to kill Blight... yet. But we should be able to seal up the entrance to our world.”

“But he gets his power from the strength of shadows, we don’t have enough light to get rid of every shadow. And when we do use more light, it only makes the shadows stronger.”

“Yes, but each shadow isn’t just a lack of light, they’re a hole in the world for dark creatures to crawl through. There is a way to seal it, but I lost the book with the incantation long ago. So unless you have a copy.” The leeries looked between each other awkwardly.

“Don’t you have a bookshelf in the office with tomes of incantations. Surely you’ve read those books, they’re all very important.” Damn. Each one of the leeries outwardly cringed at his use of ‘very important’, resulting in a frustrated groan from from Worthing.

“Honestly, I think the last person to read any of those was Rupert Ways.” Angus and Joey nodded in agreement, leaving Worthing flabbergasted,

“But Blight got him nearly ten bloody years ago!”

“Yeah..” There was a long moment of silence between them all before Angus spoke again.

“What about the Archlight?” Jane perked up, remembering their conversation as they left London.

“Yeah, didn’t you say it was Georgie?”

“WHAT?!” All eyes turned on the two, waiting for an explanation. In the end, Angus was the one to give it.

“Well, as a child, and as one who’s known Mary Poppins, he already had a lot of light. Then, after he was hit, Jack gave his own light to save him. Not only was he a leerie, but he had a childlike innocence and knew Mary Poppins too. With all that power in Georgie, he’s got more strength than we can even imagine!” Worthing looked up to the ceiling, as if he could see Georgie sleeping on the floor above.

“You’re right, but are we really going to send such a young child in there?” Michael had to admit, although he was his son, it was the only option. But could he ever live with himself if something were to happen?

“He can do it. But I’m not allowing him to go alone.” Jane was stunned, but as she stared, big eyed and her mouth hanging open, Michael only had one thing to say.

“Close your mouth please, Jane, we are not a codfish.” He’d always wanted to say that.

“Of course that’s fine, I wouldn’t have dreamt of sending him without the lads, but we still need that incantation. With them both, we can seal Blight back where he came from, but without it, we can only defeat him temporarily.”

“Well then we can pick it up when we get to London.” Joey stated confidently.

“It’s all well and good saying that,” Jane began, “but when we were leaving, London had been practically levelled.”

“But the bookcase is in the back of the basement, so if the main building is destroyed, we might still be able to get in there.” 

“And what about all those monsters?”

“We’ll just have avoid them and see if the books have a way to kill them.”

“They should do,” Worthing added, “I imagine it would be in the same book.” It seemed like it was a solid enough plan given their current circumstances. They were all in agreement. First thing in the morning, the leeries would take Georgie to London, they’d fetch the book and use it to rid the streets of the monsters, then they could seal Mr Blight away with the shadows. Admittedly, they were all bloody terrified, but you know what? They were too pissed to care.


	10. Friends & Foes

Light. A lot of it. Too bloody much of it if you were to ask Joey. He’d been comfortable in the dark, just relaxing and forgetting what they were about to do as soon as the sun had risen. The edge of night was always the best time of day. Sitting up in the bed, he took note of his friends still sleeping around him. All still there. All still not dead. Worthing had a huge house and originally offered each of them their own room, but none of them had really gotten over everything. In the end, all seven of them found themselves sleeping in the same room. Freddie, Angus and himself were in the double bed, while Connor, Lucas, John and Tom made their own beds on the floor with the pillows and blankets from the rooms they’d been offered. They all looked so peaceful.

Looking to his right, his little brother had curled in to him in a tight ball. Angus looked more relaxed than he’d been all week. It seemed like things were happening every day to crush his spirits, and it hurt to see. When he broke down on the stairs, Joey had never felt a stronger urge to kill someone in his life. To know that one person was the cause of his, his family’s and his brother’s pain was almost an overwhelming fact. It was one that had filled him to the brim with anger, and he didn’t want to calm down. Blight was going to have to face his fury and beg for mercy. The thought was driving him mad.

Angus murmured something in his sleep and shifted slightly. Joey watched him for a minute before remembering what they needed to do. He gently nudged him awake, giving him a warm smile.

“Mornin’!” He whispered. A weary ‘hi’ came back in response. Wanting to raise the spirits a bit, Joey got an idea. He placed a finger in front of his lips, theatrically gesturing for Angus to be quiet. Carefully, he shuffled across the bed to reach Angus’ right side, where Freddie slept. He looked to his brother grinning from ear to ear and he smiled back, knowing exactly what he was going to do. Trying to repress his laughter, Joey placed his hands onto Freddie’s side and in one swift motion, pushed him straight off the bed.

THUMP.

Well, that worked a treat. Best alarm he’d ever used. Without a moment’s delay, all five of them were awake as Joey and Angus were left cackling like mad men from the bed.

“Seriously?” Freddie whined from the floor as he rubbed his back, “What was that for?” But the brothers couldn’t stop laughing for long enough to be able to answer his question.

“I’ll get you back! Come here!” But before he could get up to launch himself on the two, Joey stood up on the bed.

“Nope. No you won’t!” Grabbing Angus’ hand, they jumped onto the floor and scurried out of the room, heading downstairs to hide from Freddie’s inevitable revenge. They didn’t hear any pursuers when they reached the lounge, so finally relaxed again, though they were both still giggling as if they were seven years old. Funny thing was: there were actual children upstairs that were more mature than they were!

Too busy giggling, the brothers hadn’t even noticed the Banks family and Worthing all sat around the fireplace drinking tea. They’d clearly been having a serious conversation with Georgie. Telling him exactly what was going to happen and how he was in safe hands with the leeries, and then Joey and Angus, two ‘valiant protectors’, had come running in, laughing about how they pushed their friend off a bed. Not the best timing on that one.

“Come on boys! Get your head in the game!” Worthing had ordered. Then it was Michael’s turn. As the other leeries filed into the room, Michael came to stand in front of them, looking each one in the eye. Steadying his uncertain voice, he said,

“I want you to promise me you’ll all come back in one piece. And that includes all of you, but especially Georgie. Can you do that?” With stern faces came the response.

“Yes sir.”

Great. So after they all grabbed a bite to eat, they piled into the leeries’ van. Giving a wave to Worthing, Jane, Michael and the children, they started it up and with a questionable rumble from the engine, they set off.

The streets were quite busy with the early morning hustle and bustle. Anyone would think they’d never left London. Gravesend was so similar. The shops ran parallel to the road on either side with people hurrying to get to work. Children played in the street and the markets were full of customers. It was just like home. But when they passed a man sitting on a bench, they realised just how bad things were. The fella was reading the newspaper, and on the front cover, with a photo for proof, the words ‘LONDON DESTROYED BY SATANIC CREATURES’. Word travels fast. So as the sun rose gradually, they sped down the roads to jump right back into the belly of the beast.

“Are we going to die?” Georgie’s voice came quiet and trembling from the back of the van. Joey didn’t really know what to say. He couldn’t promise they’d be alright or anything even remotely close to that. To be quite honest, he didn’t even know how they were going to do what they had to do. He had a mental checklist: go to the office, get the book, go to Blight and then banish him and seal the shadows. But it would be easier said than done. Those creatures were like zombies; spewing smoke at their victims and turning them into monsters like themselves. They knew that was the fate met by the leeries, but he couldn’t imagine how many others they’d got. They could be overrun immediately. Remembering that Georgie was still waiting for an answer, he decided on saying,

“We’ll be fine.” His Ma had always said it was ok to lie if it made someone feel better. He wasn’t sure if it comforted the boy much, but it brought a lot together for Joey. He remembered his Ma. Rose was a great woman, but she wasn’t able to save the world. His and Angus’ Pa had been a leerie and was killed by Blight a while ago, going on ten years. They were the youngest leeries, and so their coworkers quickly became a family with many father figures. But then they all went too. The final seven now had to go into London, where any one of those things could have once been their friend, their family. They’d have no idea which, but they’d have to kill them anyway. There was no avoiding it. The thought struck through his heart as a crushing, pulsing sense of their immanent demise arose. He wasn’t ready to die.

Angus hadn’t been lying. But he hadn’t really expressed the extent of the damage. When he said London had been levelled, he bloody meant it. Almost every building lay as a pile of rubble, while areas that still stood were on fire and had no more than one floor left standing. From their place at the edge of London, it seemed as if most of the commotion had died down. Driving further into the city, the roads became much less navigable as the remains of larger buildings and monuments littered the streets. By some miracle, they made a good way in without seeing any monsters, presumably the people in the area had gotten away and had either escaped, or been caught somewhere else. Either way, it meant the roads were void of all life, which was a more comforting thought when they got out of the van. By this point, there was too much rubble to drive, they were going to have to walk across London to get back to Liberty Street and find the tome.

“Which way?” Georgie whispered. Joey looked around to get his bearings. Handy thing about being a leerie: you spend all your days in the streets of London, so you learn your way around them pretty quickly.

“This way.” Choosing not to list the directions, he took off jogging letting everyone follow, making sure not to go too fast so Georgie could keep up. Through the maze of alleys and main roads they wandered, making multiple detours and hiding to avoid the increasing number of creatures they saw along the way. One thing Joey had been dreading was if there’d be any bodies around. There wasn’t even one. He didn’t know whether to be thankful that they wouldn’t have to see any corpses, or terrified at the thought that the creatures had used every person in London to gather Mr Blight’s army. The idea alone made him sick to his stomach. Blight seemed to want to rule the world with a dark army, you know, typical bad guy stuff. But he only seemed to be doing it because he could. Their was no reason or logic. He was just sick. Opposing the light for the soul reason being that he had the power to.

Just at the entrance to Liberty street, they stopped.

Oh fuck.

Right by the door to the remains of Worthing’s Lamps, stood one of the horrific creatures. It’s long neck craned as it scanned the area, looking for something, or someone. The spidery legs scuttled across the ground to the other side of the street, as the company of leeries practically dived behind a wrecked car to hide. Their hearts pounded through their chests. Waiting. Waiting and hoping and praying beyond belief that they wouldn’t be spotted or heard or smelled. They weren’t there. And it didn’t need to know that was a lie. They definitely weren’t there. The creature peered through the windows of the other businesses on the tiny cul-de-sac. Deciding they were empty of whatever it was looking for, it crawled up onto what was left of their roofs, which were at the same level as it’s head, and bounded along to find another target somewhere else.

“Jeez, that was close.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.”

“Well, I mean, you just saw it. You shouldn’t need me to tell you.” Connor’s attempt at humour fell flat as he was met with the frustrated stares of six leeries and a child that were 100% done with his shit.

“Shut up Connor.” As their attention turned back to the task at hand, they took in the sorry sight of their ex-workplace. The roof had caved in through the second floor and probably to the first floor too. Every window was shattered, and the broken lamp by the door had long since burnt out. Inside was just as bad. The roof had collapsed and crushed the desks and chairs. A thin layer of dust lay over the bomb site as books from the various tipped shelves littered the ground. An overwhelming well of grief began to bubble up at the sorry sight of the place that they had so many fond memories of. 

As the world fell apart around them, Georgie was the first to notice a sound coming from the basement. A scuffling. A rustling. A rummaging. The sound was quiet but definitely there. The leeries were the next to notice. Something, or someone was downstairs.

Joey pointed to the stairs, signalled to be quiet, and silently stepped over to them, picking up some broken wood from the splintered banister to use as an improvised weapon if he deemed it necessary. Taking calculated steps down the stairs, they were able to avoid any creaking as they reached the bottom. Nobody could tell if their hearts soared or sank at the sight. A young man had his back to them, shuffling through the bookcase they needed to get to. He looked to be unarmed, so, gathering the courage, Joey broke the silence with a loud and stern,

“HEY! Who the hell are you?” The man froze.

“Well? What are you doing in our office?” The man sighed and rose to his feet, turning to face them with his hands raised. He had a tatty blue and white striped shirt with rolled up sleeves loosely tucked into his pants that were way too short for him. Bracers reached up over his shoulders, and a torn and patched up brown flat cap sat on top of a mop of curly ginger hair. Brown eyes were wide in fear and his clean shaven face held his mouth in a line. He stumbled over an explanation in his head and before he knew it, it was Joey that was speaking again.

“Wait a minute. I’ve seen you before. You’re a Shepherdson leerie aren’t you?”

“Yes, and I suppose you’re all Worthing leeries?” He took a look at Georgie. “But what’s with the little fella?” Joey ignored his query.

“You still haven’t answered my questions.” Looking more than a little spooked, he shifted awkwardly under their gaze.

“My name’s Deake. I was just looking for a book. I figured one of the leerie companies had it, so I’ve been going around London to each office to try and find it.”

“And that book is...”

“It has an incantation that we can use to seal the shadows. We can put a stop to all this.” Joey smiled. They both were after the same thing for the same reasons, meaning the guy could help them.

“Great, cos that’s what we came to get. D’ya find it?” Deake looked surprised and picked a heavy looking book up from the floor. It was bound in old grey leather and on the front, it half worn black ink, was a simple image of a candle.

“Yeah, this is it.” Joey walked over and took it from the lad, flicking through the pages.

“Wha-what are you doing?!” Joey looked at him, an amused grin sneaking onto his face.

“You may ‘ave been able to get this book on your own, but it’ll take more than one to get close enough to Blight to use it.” Deake’s face turned from a look of shock, to one of confusion.

“Who’s Blight?”

“Mr Blight.” Replied Joey, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, “you know, the one that’s destroying the world?”

“D’ya mean Erabus?”

“We call him Mr Blight round here. Makes ‘im seem a little less like a demon from hell, you know?”

“Ok...” With that, Joey made his way back to the stairs with the book in hand, throwing a quick ‘come on then’ over his shoulders. As the company followed, Deake panicked, he needed to get the book, but there weren’t any of his own leeries left to help.

“Wait! Where are you going? I got that!” Joey stopped, turned around and with a tired look, said,

“Ok, first, this book was always ours, we still own this place so you have no right to claim it. Second, do you really think I’d give it to you so you could run off and try to do this alone, and Thirdly.” He paused and raised a finger for emphasis, “Do you really think doing all that would be worth it without the Archlight to get it done properly.” He gestured to Georgie as Deake’s eyes widened.

“That’s why you’ve got him?!”

“Do you really think we’d bring a kid for any other reason when we plan to fight a literal hellish beast?” Angus chimed in. Georgie shrunk back at the mention of their task while Deake simply stood there dumbfounded.

“Well come on then!”


	11. Familiar Faces

Georgie. Joey. Angus. Connor. Tom. Lucas. John. Freddie. Deake. Hardly the stuff of legends. 8 leeries and a little boy. All terrified. None of them quite sure of what they were doing. But it was their time. The future of London rested on their shoulders. The lives of millions to be saved by their hands. It was a big ask for some labourers and a boy. They’d been through trials and tribulations, but it was the time. Time to take a stand. Time to save their home. And time to make Blight pay for ruining their family. It was now or never. They only had one shot, so they had to make it count.

“What do you mean, ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’?” Georgie shrank back as the eyes of the leeries turned to him in a horrified shock.

“I don’t know what to do. You never told me how this would work!” Joey facepalmed as he realised their mistake. Angus began to feel the fear corrupting his body as he began to question him,

“Didn’t Worthing tell you this morning? That’s what he was supposed to be doing!”

“No! He just tried to make me feel better. He didn’t say what I had to do.” Angus began to panic as he realised just how unprepared they were. As he tried to find the words to explain what to do, his mind drew blank.

“So, what do I do?” Joey looked around the street awkwardly, holding the book tighter before heaving a frustrated sigh.

“Well, the truth is: I don’t know.”

“WHAT!” Deake bellowed. “You found and brought the Archlight but you don’t know how he can use his power?! Do you know what’s happened to the people of London?! Those that weren’t corrupted have been brutally murdered. Do you really think taking the only threat to Blight into battle when he can’t defend himself is a good idea?! He needs to know how to use these powers!”

“ONLY WORTHING WOULD KNOW!” He snapped. On instinct, everyone took a step back, but Joey just dropped his head, trying to regain his composure and prevent his overwhelming despair from taking over. He turned to Georgie again and crouched down to the boy’s level.

“Georgie, every leerie accesses their power differently. And since your powers came from Jack, you need to do what he did. What Jack would do would be unique to him. With him gone, the only other person who could know would be Worthing. But he wouldn’t be able to give you a clear idea.” Everyone felt a chill as they realised they were failing already, then Angus piped up with what they were all thinking.

“So right now, our only options are to go back, or to go in and figure it out from there.” Everyone cringed as they realised their chances, when Deake objected,

“You can’t seriously take a child in to do this when you don’t know how to access his powers!”

“Well we can’t go back and we don’t have time to spend trying to figure it out before we go. We’ll be caught too fast. We have to decide now. We either leave now, or we fight now. There isn’t another option. If we wait, we die.” As Joey delivered the ultimatum, everyone fell silent. In the end, it was Georgie who was first to speak.

“Let’s go.” It was a rare moment of courage. Maybe it was because he didn’t have options. Maybe because he wanted to make his family proud. Or maybe because he missed Jack. But he didn’t know. But for whatever reason, as the concerned eyes of the leeries fell on him, the confidence didn’t fade. Georgie stood tall and in the sternest voice the six year old could muster, he said,

“We have to fight. We’ll be ok.” Joey really wanted to point out what was very wrong about the statement, but decided to and let it be their motivation.

“Alright. That settles it.”

“What?! You can’t be serious?!”

“Well he’s the one who has to be there for this to work. So if he wants to go, I’ll follow.”

“And me.” Angus chimed. The other leeries looked at each other before nodding and agreeing to follow, although Deake was hesitant at first.

“There, we go then. Come on. I think I can guess where he is.” The group took off running together. Dodging and weaving once more to avoid any sign of life in the street. They didn’t want to fight until it was absolutely necessary. As they came closer to Joey’s destination, the rest quickly recognised the area and guessed where they were going: Buckingham Palace. The logical place to find someone that wanted to rule.

As they arrived at the gates, their guess had been right. In the palace’s courtyard was a line of the creatures, all guarding the site. Hiding behind the stone posts of the grand gate, they gathered together a plan. They needed a distraction to get inside. Surveying the outside, it seemed like an open window was their best bet. So, after a bit of debate, Deake, John, Connor, Lucas, Freddie and Tom (Team A) would distract the guards, while Angus, Joey and Georgie (Team B) snuck in. Once the plan was set, it was just a case of putting it in motion. Team A spread out along the fence, while team B gathered by the fence closest to the palace itself, ready to climb. Then, from their positions, Team A started to make themselves known.

“HEY!”

“Lookie here ya lanky git!”

“What about me!”

“Oh no! Look how poor and defenceless I am!”

“Hi~”

“BASTARDS!” With each shout, a head popped up, catching the creatures’ attentions. They screeched and charged at the fence. Most seemed to forget they couldn’t run through metal, so they just impacted the bars, the others were smart enough to jump and climb over. Team A quickly scattered, running in all directions dodging hits and drawing them away from their posts, giving team B the perfect chance to climb the fence and slip through the window.

Inside the palace it was dark. Not just because the lights weren’t on, after all, it was still only the late afternoon. No, it was dark because of the black mist seeping and sweeping through the long corridors. Ash stained the carpet and sludge painted the walls. The once bright and bold regal colours had faded and lost their grandeur while Blight’s power took control. They followed the bloody red carpet along the hall, turning around each corner, searching for their enemy. They very quickly realised that everything got much darker around a point in the palace. The darkness emanated quite clearly to be seen, so with that in mind, the trio made their way further into the darkness.

At the end of one corridor in particular, the doors were practically painted black. It seemed like Blight had claimed the throne room, because of course he had. Joey turned to his boys with a look on his face that screamed ‘I love you but I’m terrified to lose you but anyway we need to do this’.

“When we get in, start reading the incantation immediately, Angus. And Georgie, you need to activate it. Do whatever you feel is right to unlock that power. I’ll keep him busy.” Georgie nodded as Angus found the page in the book he needed before looking back to his brother. Joey looked them both in the eyes for a moment.

“Whatever happens in there, do your best. We’ll be ok.” Taking a final deep breath, a quaking hand reached for the door. In a swift motion, Joey swung it open and they stepped inside.

The room was pitch black. Sucked completely of all light. It was impossible to make out any shapes and they soon realised the problem: this meant they couldn’t see Blight. The door slammed shut behind them and the room went painfully cold.

“You really think you can just kill me?” He knew they were there. He knew exactly why. He had heard them. The three of them froze. Not in fear, but because they physically couldn’t move. Something worked its way around their bodies and held them firmly in place with their feet rooted to the floor. Angus tried to speak the incantation, but the darkness slapped something over his mouth and plucked the book from his hands, dropping it at his side. The voice sighed.

“How easy did you think this would be? You actually thought this would be over so soon?” With Angus unable to speak and Georgie scared beyond belief, once more, it fell on Joey to take the lead.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Interesting question to ask on your deathbed.” He started to chuckle. “I don’t really know myself. It’s been a desire of mine to rule, but to destroy your pitiful world and make it my own. But I couldn’t say why.” He laughed sickeningly softly, “Maybe it’s for the power, or the fun. Or your face as you remember every single person you’ve failed to protect.” They watched in horror as Blight finally took on a visible form. But not his own. His face shifted to that of a human. One they all knew too well: Jack.

“I have to say, he was quite noble wasn’t he. An incredibly valiant sacrifice from an incredibly stupid man.” Georgie burned with rage and in a moment of blind anger, screamed at him,

“DON’T CALL HIM STUPID!” Blight only chuckled and moved closer to Georgie as Angus and Joey squirmed to free themselves and pull him away.

“It’s quite rude to shout at people, boy. Didn’t your mother teach you better?” His face shifted again to Kate’s. The three recognised her instantly and had to fight not to scream at him again for even mentioning that incredible woman.

“Don’t you even dare.” Blight approached Joey and Angus next with a sly grin on his face.

“What? Do you want to see your mummy too?” When he shifted to Rose, a thought crossed his mind and then, Blight had an even better idea.

“Or what about dear old Dad?” He switched again to the face of the brothers’ father. “I almost forgot, he’s dead too. All those years you’ve gone without him. Such a shame for you boys to have to grow up without him, but he’s put to much better use in my care.” Blights word hissed and seemed to slither into the boys’ heads. Seeing their father was really getting to them. Rupert had been killed by Blight nearly ten years ago and to think that his murderer could be so close to them, looking so much like him, made them want to scream. They quivered as the memories of their father lying in bed, slowly losing his mind, came whirling into their heads. The image crawling under their skin. As tears threatened to spill, Blight lifted the book again, a grin creeping across their father’s face.

“Which is why I’m going to do this.” Erupting from his hand, a black sludge began to consume the book, eating its way over it. The slurping covered it in a thick layer before turning to ash. And all in an instant, the book disintegrated in his hands.

“NO!” Joey screamed. Shit! Everything had gone wrong. In a panic, the trio started squirming in the grip and much to their surprise, it loosened, as Blight was too busy cackling like a psychopath to pay attention to his grip. He didn’t even notice them slip free from the darkness’ grasp and run away. But he wasn’t too fussed. He was in control and they couldn’t do much about it, so he wouldn’t worry. Instead, he said through the darkness to his monsters,

“Kill them.”

Joey, Angus and Georgie raced through the halls with rapid breaths torn from their throats. Their chests heaved and their legs screamed but they continued nonetheless. Upon reaching the window, Joey practically shoved Georgie and Angus through before clambering through himself. The courtyard was suspiciously void of life, until a pair of legs came running at them.

“DEAKE! Come on we have to get out of here! He destroyed the book! We have to go!” Joey’s urgency nearly brought the man to tears, but when Angus looked around, he realised something,

“Deake, where are the others?” When he got no response, he asked again a little more panicked, “Where are they?!” Deake looked at the ground.

“I’m sorry. I tried. I really did. But there was too many. I tried to help them but... they’re dead.” Shit. Joey knew their plan was dangerous, but he had hoped they could make it out alive, and they so nearly did. He wanted to mourn. He wanted to feel grief for a while, he needed to come to terms with everything, but their situation was too desperate. If they stayed any longer, they’d be dead too. They had to go. They could mourn their losses later. In a trembling voice, he managed to find the words,

“We have to go.” Deake nodded and followed as Joey took off running, Angus and Georgie trailing after him. After a while of confusion, they eventually found the van they had arrived in. Climbing in and starting the engine, there was a roar. One of the monsters had found them. Screeching tires tried to carry them away, but spears of legs landed on the van and pierced through. The passengers desperately tried to dodge the spikes as they came in through the roof and the windscreen. Their screams mixed with the creature’s as Joey slammed on the accelerator in an attempt to throw the damn thing off. Eventually it worked and it fell hard, but the creature wasn’t down for long. It quickly got up and bounded after the van as it sped away.

“GO FASTER!”

“I AM!” The thing bounded behind them as they panicked. The van could only go so fast. It wasn’t enough. Not when the thing chasing them had legs that were longer than a whole man. Then, Joey got an idea. Checking everyone had their seatbelts on, he slammed on the brakes. The sudden stop was too quick for the creature, who ran into the back of the van head first, knocking it down. As soon as they’d felt its impact, Joey slammed back on the accelerator and sped away as fast as the van would allow. 

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Everything had gone wrong. Literally everything. Joey slumped in his seat as he drove. There was no way they were going to be able to stop this.


	12. Rising Embers

Georgie. Joey. Angus. Deake. Hardly the stuff of legends. And they’d just proved it. In the much more spacious van, the now quartet sat in silence. Not one of them had spoken since they made their escape. Now they just sat there, trying to come to terms with whatever had just happened. The book was gone. It was over. If nobody knew that incantation, then nobody could seal up the shadows. They had failed. Big time.

As the moon began to rise over Gravesend, they drove through the calm streets. Houses had been boarded up as people heard about London. Stores were ransacked in the panic as everyone hid from the monsters they feared would attack. The carried on driving through and back out of the town, and into the country to Worthing’s house. At the bottom of the grassy hill, they looked up at the mansion, wondering what they were going to say when they heard what happened. They didn’t really want to go back. They could run away and pretend they’d died too, but that’d be no help to anyone. So they sucked up the courage and drove up the gravel road to the house.

The ivy covered stone mansion looked so peaceful. The lights were on and as someone walked past the window, they stopped. Without a doubt, it was Jane. She spotted them, waved and ran to answer the door. Swinging it open with a great smile of relief on her face.

“You’re back!” The four of them got out with their tails between their legs. When nobody else get out of the van, Jane knew what happened.

“They’re dead, aren’t they?” She was met with a dejected nod from Angus.

“Did you stop him?” Her question was more urgent, but she was met with silence.

“Oh my God. He won...” her voice was barely a whisper as she stood there. She had no idea what to do, so just invited them inside, choosing not to question the other surviver she didn’t know.

Inside, Worthing and Michael were quick to greet them. They introduced Deake and started to explain what had happened.

“He destroyed it?”

“Yeah. Turned it to ash right in front of us.” There was silence. As they sat around the kitchen table, each one clutching a cup of tea as they felt their last shred of hope slip away.

“So that’s it then?” Michael began. “He won.”

“It would seem so.” Worthing answered.

“Well then, what are we supposed to do.”  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
“I don’t know.”

So that was it. They lost. It was all over. Blight would win and there was nothing they could do about it. It was only a matter of time before his control spread from London, to the rest of the world. There was nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. No way to stop it. Too many had died. For so many years, people had been dying slow horrible deaths to try fend off the darkness. But their efforts had been for nothing. London had fallen and so would the rest of the world. It was not a proud moment. They all sat moping around, wishing the world was simpler. Michael just wanted his children to grow up safely, now it looked like they wouldn’t grow up at all. The leeries missed their friends greatly. It had been so long since they’d seen them and properly and been able to enjoy themselves. It was almost comforting to know that when they died, they’d be able to join them.

As they contemplated their own mortality, there was a noise. A loud bang coming from outside. The sound of metal being crushed and scraping on itself, screeching as it went. Then came the shrieking. They’d been followed. All eyes in the room turned to each other as a look of realisation spread over their faces. This was it. The final stand. This is where they were going to die.

A beating came to the door, and as they entered the living room, they watched in terror as a black spear punched through the heavy wood, wrenching it from the frame. A large body pushed through and stood as close to full height as it could before it reached the ceiling. It’s head craned down with big white dead eyes staring through their souls. Then, the sludge covered face opened up, almost breaking the jaw open. It’s dark void of a mouth sucked in the heat around it and as the room was plunged into a freezing cold, it let out an ear piercing shriek.

Taking a sweeping hit at the group, the creature roared a battle cry and knocked over as much furniture as possible, blocking anyone from making an easy escape. It rumbled and spewed a cloud of smoke at them, each one of them dodging out of the way. If they were going to go down. They’d go down fighting. Worthing was the first to pull a weapon from the kitchen, a rather impressive knife, that he charged at the creature with, stabbing it in the chest and dragging the blade down through the torso. John and Annabel, who had been quietly hiding, suddenly made themselves known, diving for the creature grabbing its legs and clinging on for dear life. It started trying to shake them off and awkwardly turning to try face them enough to blow smoke at them. It was the perfect distraction for Angus to grab a hold of its neck and with the entire weight of his body, pulled it down. Michael, Jane and Worthing all piled on top in an attempt to hold it down as Joey held down its head. Raising a knife above his head, he swung down, plunging the blade into its head directly through its left eye.

The creature screamed in agony as it writhed and threw its captors from its body. As a smooth murky liquid came drooling from its injuries, it swung around again, completely oblivious of its surroundings as the ‘blood’ on its face and its sundered eye made it impossible to see. As it began to flail, an unfortunately aimed kick made contact with a candle rather than a person. It rolled from its place on the mantelpiece, landing on the floor by the curtains which quickly went up in flames.

The fire spread rapidly around the room. A dancing blaze swallowing everything in its wake. As the space was obscured with heat and smoke, everyone started to panic. Through the glowing smoke, the vision of one eye shone through. To put it simply, if they didn’t get out immediately, they were screwed.

Everyone started running in different directions. It couldn’t catch all of them if they scattered. John and Annabel were the first to escape, managing to reach the backdoor before the roof collapsed and blocked Georgie from doing the same. Worthing dived through the creature’s legs and made it to the other side, where he bolted to the door flinging it open and shouting back,

“THIS WAY!” As the room was so hazy, he couldn’t see anyone, but when he got outside, Joey and Jane emerged unscathed. Back inside, Michael called for Georgie. He knew he was still inside, but he couldn’t see where he was. He kept moving through the house away from the creature who’s size was giving it a lot of problems. He couldn’t lose him. He couldn’t lose him. He just couldn’t lose him! Smoke was filling his lungs and it got harder to breathe. As he coughed and spluttered, he prayed to see his son. Michael was ready to give up when someone ran into him. But it wasn’t Georgie, it was that Deake fello. 

“Come on!” He urged.

“No! I’m not leaving without Georgie!”

“He’s already out!” Deake proceeded to lift a chair and hurl it at the nearest window, shattering to glass. “Come on!” He grabbed his wrist and pulled him along, climbing through the window as fast as possible without cutting themselves on the glass. When they got onto the lawn, they ran to their friends but Michael was quick to notice,

“Georgie’s not here!” He could’ve throttled Deake there and then, but the fear for his son was much greater a power and it rooted him in place. Deake tried to reason with him,

“If I didn’t lie, you’d still be in there and you’d be dead!” The suggestion that he did the right thing only infuriated him, but Joey was quick to hold him back.

“Angus is still in there too, he’ll get him out, or I’m going in after them both.” The pale face of determination was clearly speaking the truth, and Michael backed down, looking to the flaming mansion, desperately scanning for any form of his son or the leerie.

Inside the house, Angus was completely lost in the smog. It was impossible to see where he was going and the smoke was beginning to overpower him. Deciding it was best to go up to avoid some of the fire, he clambered up the ever weakening stairs to escape. The second floor wasn’t much of an improvement , but it was slightly better. He shuffled down the hall, trying to think what to do. If he could find the right window, he could climb out of it and down the ivy. It probably wouldn’t hold his weight for long, but hopefully, it would hold for long enough for him to climb down part way and jump down the rest without hurting himself.

As he made a mental map of the house, he figured that the window in Worthing’s room would be his best chance. He hurried down the corridor and went to open the door, but there was a scream inside and the door was held shut. The little sliver he saw before it was slammed shut was enough to tell him that it was just Georgie inside, hiding from the creature that was floundering in the fire downstairs.

“Georgie! It’s me! It’s Angus! Let me in, I know how to get us out of here!” There was a moment as Georgie hesitated, when nothing happened, but after a second, he opened the door and Angus practically tumbled inside, shutting it behind him.

“What do we do?!” Georgie cried. Angus picked up the small wooden bedside table and threw it at the window, shattering the glass and falling outside. He looked back to Georgie with a heart pounding sense of urgency.

“Come on, climb on.” He gestured for the boy to climb onto his back, which he did without question, wrapping his legs tightly around the leerie’s waist and his hands locked around his neck, but still loose enough not to cut off his airways.

“Good. Now, whatever you do, don’t let go.” With that, he walked to the window and climbed through. Turning awkwardly, he grabbed a hold of the window ledge and lowered himself to grab the ivy. As he feared, the ivy began to tear away from the wall. He carefully tried not to make it worse and instead grip onto the worn stone bricks making up the wall. He didn’t dare look down, but Georgie did. And as he saw the 15ft drop below him, he had to admit, he could’ve cried.

From below, everyone watched in horror as a burst of flames erupted from the window they had escaped from moments ago. Angus remained as calm as he could- though his hands still shook enough to put them in more danger- while he made the descent. His ribs felt like they’d break as his heart beat against them. Adrenaline was pumping like rockets through his veins and his knees tried to buckle on multiple occasions. By the time they were about ten feet from the ground, the ivy finally gave away and the two plunged to the grass below.

The fall was hard, winding them on impact, but thankfully, the grassy dirt cushioned them enough to prevent any injuries. Angus landed on his stomach. Completely winded, he lay there for a few moments, unable to breathe. But when the air filled his lungs again, he sat up a little too quickly, grabbed Georgie- who had landed on top of him- and pulled him away from the house and to their friends who met them halfway.

“GEORGIE!” Michael rushed to his son, pulling him into a tight hug, lifting him from the ground and holding him as he also held back his tears. Joey was just as quick to reach his brother, checking Angus all over for injuries. Once he was satisfied he was unharmed, he pulled him into a hug as well, relishing the moment.

As they all came together reuniting, a scream came from inside. A bellowing roar that shook the house to the foundations. For a moment, nothing else happened, but suddenly, the heaping black mass that was the beast, came tumbling out of the fire. Breaking down the weakened walls around the front door, it barricaded outside. It was burning. Flames consumed the creature’s body as it shrieked in unspeakable agony. The blaze attacked it all over and started to melt the scum covered skin. The black sludge began to fall away from its body revealing no skeleton. It just seemed to melt and fall apart. The legs snapped in multiple directions, letting its hulking mass fall to the ground. The long neck flailed it’s head around wildly as it it let out a final cry before dropping to the ground as the flames continued to swallow its remains. It was... dead? It was dead!

A chorus of cheers filled the air. They’d actually killed one! It made little difference, but the small victory was certainly a sweet one. To know that you could even kill them at all was a surprise in itself, never mind actually doing it. As a sense of pride swelled within them, Jane noticed something.

As the fire died away from the creature’s corpse, most of it had been reduced to a thick liquid. But without a doubt, there was something solid where the torso used to be. It was covered in the body’s remains, but as the heat evaporated some and the rest fell away, they realised it was the body of a human.

Frozen in shock, everyone stood still as the person pushed themselves up on their side. They were facing away from them, but that didn’t stop Angus from approaching them. As he reached the stranger, they became much more recognisable. A grey jacket over a cheap red waistcoat, pinstriped pants, a bit of stubble and a face that almost always smiled.

“JACK!” Hearing Angus’ exclamation, everyone rushed over to them, hoping he would be alright. As his weak arms pushed him into a sitting position, Jack looked up at Angus. He had the same injuries as the creature received. A knife had torn down his chest and stabbed through his eyes, while every bit of exposed skin was covered in burns. Blood was covering his face and chest, but somehow, he was wearing a relieved smile. Angus almost cried, but was astonished as a golden glow appeared over his injuries. Everyone watched in awe as the shining light stitched his chest back together and undid the damage to his eye and erased to burns from his skin. He was unmarred. A mess, but not hurt. His grin widened as his hoarse voice gave a weak greeting,

“Hi.” Tears welled in Angus’ eyes as he dropped down to his friend’s level and drew him into a hug.

“You’re back! How?!”

“How should I know?” He joked, “one minute I was dying, next thing I know I’m lying in a corpse and on fire.” Everyone gathered around, each taking turns greeting him, the children almost tackling him in a hug. They were so glad to see him alive and well, after thinking he was gone for good.

“Here, let’s help you up.” Jack nodded, so Joey and Angus came to his sides. Each taking an arm around their shoulder, on three, they lifted him to his feet. Thinking their idea was a good one, they were surprised when Jack shuddered, quickly went very pale and eyes went wide as a sudden feeling washed over him.

“NOPE! Put me down!” He frantically rambled. They’d barely lowered him to the ground before he started coughing like an old hag, spluttering and gasping for breath. Suddenly, he started to cough up a vile murky liquid filled with small black pieces of sludge. His hacking coughs were uncomfortable to watch, but it got worse as more came up. After vomiting almost a litre of the stuff, it got thicker and more sludge-filled, as he expelled another load of it from his body. Once that had all come up, he was left dry heaving. Large chunks were chucked up with a disgusting texture. They were cold and sticky making them seem wet at first, despite being dry and sticking to his throat. They pieces were like jelly, but as tough as rubber, making it impossible for them to come up in smaller pieces. As he tried not to choke on it, the darkness of unconsciousness began to creep into Jack’s vision. He could barely breathe. A sense of panic was trying to take over his fatigued body, but his wretching made it impossible to move him. Once everything was up and he was barely conscious, he managed to say one thing before passing out,

“Oh hi Deake!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He’s returned! I missed writing him. Welp, see ya next Saturday.


	13. Chances

They were... different. The more he looked at them, the more things just felt wrong. When did the room become so dark? Since when was he so tall? A shrieking roar tore through somebody’s throat. It couldn’t have been his own. Something urged him to run. To fight. To create as much chaos in the small space. To kill them. He couldn’t possibly say why. But he felt like he must. It didn’t even occur to him what killing them would even mean. If he had considered it further, he may have changed his mind. But thinking was impossible. Exhausting and difficult. The little voice came back. Whispering in his ear. Hissing commands from inside his own head. Who else was in there?

It then occurred to him that it was hot. If his lungs had been working in the first place, he may have noticed them filling with something. Alas, the cold sticky tar had already filled them. Or at least, it felt like that. But as he thought back on the feeling, it couldn’t be possible. How would he be alive and breathing? The hot something was all around him. His first instinct was to flee. Something was telling him that this ‘hot’ was bad. What was it even called? He couldn’t remember. It was no surprise, since he couldn’t even remember why he had followed them in the first place.

Then they were gone. He couldn’t pinpoint the moment they had left, but they had. The hot stuff was still there though. That hadn’t left. But the hot stuff wasn’t good. He didn’t wasn’t it to stay. He wanted his friends to stay. Wait. Friends? Who were they? They weren’t friends. They were scared. They didn’t want to be his friend. But the hot stuff did. Lapping at his ankles and crawling up his leg, it came for a hug. Slithering around his torso and slipping up his neck, before wrapping its warmth around his head. It was when it’s grip tightened that he realised it wasn’t friendly. The air he didn’t know he was breathing, was cut off as it danced inside his head through and increasingly painful hole. The heat wasn’t friendly. The heat hurt. It was- it was-

FIRE!

Shaking legs. Crying. Hyperventilating. All common signs of fear. But all were absent. He was definitely scared. Of that he was certain. But something was wrong. It had been wrong for a while. And instead of your typical reaction to being on fire, he was a little more animalistic. It was too small. He had to get out. Out. Out. OUT. He was twisting. Turning. Flailing. Out. Out. OUT. WHERE WAS OUT?! He had to find it! 

Something was in his chest. Fire. Burning. Ripping, tearing and screeching, desperately trying to break free, to escape. Adrenaline pushed through his cramped veins. Too much was trying to make him run. Too much was trying to make him stay. He didn’t even realise when the wall approached. When the wall crumbled. Or even when he stumbled over the remains. Was he out? Was this out? It was cold. The heat was behind him now. The cold was ahead. It was nice. Refreshing. But it wasn’t alone.

The heat gripped him. Clawing at his chest. No. NO! He got out! He escaped! This wasn’t fair! But fire cares little for what is fair. It began to consume him. Swallow him whole. Eat and digest every bit of exposed skin, or... whatever it was that covered his body. When it tore through his body, he could’ve sworn it was like a prison cell was ripped open. A shriek escaped his lungs as he fell out of his chest, or at least something did. Something small. Something weak and fragile. Something vaguely familiar. What was it? Who was it? Blight would be furious. But then he realised, he was the small thing. WHAT WAS IT?!

But he didn’t find out. It was too dark to see. Too numb to feel. Too suffocating to smell. Then silence. A fuzzy fizzing wrapped around his legs as he came apart. Though he couldn’t tell if he meant it physically or metaphorically. Either way, as he fell to the ground, he ceased to be. At least, in his current form.

Things were a blur. He could’ve sworn that he was awake at some point, at least partially. After all, his lungs felt clear, like he’d coughed up something from inside them. He’d have been awake for that. Right? It’s not the kind of thing you’d miss. But when he did start to come around, things were a bit clearer.

Jack was very aware that he was lying on something soft. It was covered in fabric and raised up on three sides, with just enough space in the middle to lie flat on. That was enough to tell him it was a couch. Some voices muddled through from a distance, though he didn’t care to try count how many. They seemed strained and loud, too loud for him to bear. Though in reality, they spoke at a moderate tone. He was confused about a lot of things though. For example, he could’ve sworn he heard the voice of an old man alongside what he was quite sure were the leeries and the Banks family.

He eventually realised he wasn’t moving, nor had he opened his eyes, and if he wanted to understand what was going on, that was the first thing he’d have to do. So, with a slight shift in his position, he opened his eyes and pushed himself up to sit. Honestly though, it didn’t help him to figure out what was going on. He’d never seen the place in his life. A rather bare room with beige walls and a dusty old carpet. From his position, he couldn’t see much out of the windows, but what little view he did have, told him that he was upstairs in whatever building this was.

The lack of furniture or anything of interest in the room did make for little distraction, so when a young man he’d never seen before poked his head in the room, Jack had been quick to spot it. They’d only been there for a moment, before turning away and calling to the rest of the place,

“He’s awake!” His call was quickly followed by the hurried steps of many recognisable faces.

“JACK!” Georgie was the first in and he quickly took the opportunity to pounce onto the couch with him and give him the biggest hug imaginable. This actually caused Michael to have a mini heart attack as he seemed to think Georgie would have dived on him instead. Joey and Angus pushed past also determined to join the hug in fits of relieved laughter. Worthing stood back with Deake, allowing Jane, Michael, John and Annabel to also have a moment with him before they joined the little celebration. 

The chorus of laughter, “I was so worried”s, “we missed you”s and “we’re so glad you’re alright”s, were eventually interrupted as Jack finally got a chance to speak.

“What happened?” The whole room was silenced. Eyes darted between each other as they tried to find the right words, but to no avail. Before any of the others could get too emotional and freak out Jack too much, Worthing decided to answer first to bring a calm manner to the situation. After all, young ones always had a habit of getting a little bit too ahead of themselves.

“London has fallen.” Jack was horrified but silent, his expression urging Worthing to tell him more, “The rest of the leeries have gone, but we could be able to bring them back.” He assured, before Jack would have a chance to get upset. They didn’t need any more of that. Jack seemed to catch onto this as he decided to make the conversation a little more productive than have it get too emotional. Whatever chaos had happened while he was gone, he didn’t wasn’t to know... yet.

“Well, how do we do it then?”

“Any of our lads that were killed could’ve only died if they were corrupted by those monsters, and if Blights making an army, he probably did that to the rest of London rather than actually killing them. You were one of those monsters and when you were set on fire, it turned you back to normal and relit your power. So that means we could potentially bring everyone back!” In that moment, Jack looked to Michael. Michael didn’t understand it, but looking back and considering their last conversation, he realised what he must have been thinking. It was amazing news but one thing stood out to Jack.

“Hang on, when was I on fire?” Joey quickly chimed in with an answer,

“Oh yeah! Long story short: you burnt down Worthing’s house and accidentally set yourself on fire.” Jack had no idea how to respond to that. Not a bloody clue. After a few moments of confusion and trying to find the words, his “well thought out” response was,

“Ok... sorry.” Worthing simply laughed. Surprisingly, he wasn’t too upset about his house. Most likely because when you considered the bigger picture, his house held no significance to their problems, and if it hadn’t burnt, they’d never have found any hope to defeat Blight.

“Hang on, where are we now?”

“We’re with the Gravesend leeries.” Angus chimed, “They offered to let us stay until we can stop Blight.”

“Which we need to get thinking about.” Added Deake, “without that book, we don’t stand much of a chance. It’s going to be tough to turn everyone back. And even if we manage it, it’ll only weaken him. It’ll be like things were before all... this, but he would still be able to attack us and build up an army again.”

“But we can turn them back, he’d never be able to build enough of an army to do anything.” Jane argued.

“But we can’t set fire to people until they’ve turned into these monsters, which would only happen when Blight decides he’s corrupted enough to take over and we’d be back in this situation. If we turn everyone back now, we’ll just be back at the start of a never ending cycle. Either that, or he’ll just slowly kill all of humanity and gain more strength without ever raising them again. And then we’re definitely dead.”

“So in other words, everything’s still completely hopeless?” Michael asked.

“... yeah.” While everyone continued to wallow in silent self-pity, Jack- who hadn’t seen the depressing things they had- was the only one still with any determination. So he stood up and started to give his piece. After regaining his balance of course... maybe standing up so fast after nearly dying wasn’t the best idea.

“Come on, we’ve still got a chance. All we need is the incantation and the Archlight. Well, we can get the book and Georgie’s the Archlight, so we just need to get to London and and sneak into wherever he’s hiding.”

“We already figured all that out and tried it. But all that happened was the last few of the lads got killed and the book was destroyed.”

“Well, you don’t need the book do you?” His rhetorical question made him look like the dumbest person on the planet to his tired friends that were already sick of his optimism. On any day it would be welcome, but in a helpless situation, it was simply irritating.

“Well we do if we want the incantation.” Deake, rather rudely, emphasised every word as if he was speaking to someone of a feeble mind. Jack just looked confused between everyone, mainly the leeries.

“Was I seriously the only one who read that book?” That was when the penny finally dropped. Everyone was immediately stood at attention.

“You know it?!”

“Yeah? Seriously, did nobody else think it’d be a good idea to learn it in case this whole ‘monster thing’ happened.”

“You say that as if you knew all this would end in monsters destroying the world.”

“It literally said it in the book, on the same page as this incantation.” The leeries stood there looking slack jawed and bug eyed at him, including Worthing. They knew that getting Jack back would be good, but they hadn’t been prepared for this. However, it did make them look like a bunch of idiots.

“You know it! This is great! Blight can’t get rid of it now. If he kills you and turns you back into a monster, we can just turn you back and try again!”

“And,” Angus added, “with the light Georgie has, the same applies to him. We literally have as many attempts at this as we want!” The whole room burst into joy. Finally, a good chance at defeating their enemy had come along. All they had to do was succeed with it. Now they just needed a plan.

This time, when everyone started to discuss possibilities, they went through it a lot more thoroughly and running through the what ifs in case it all went wrong like last time. They came to the conclusion that the team method was a good idea and the Gravesend leeries were happy to help. They needed distractions to make sure that Jack and Georgie could get close to Blight as safely as possible. They ran through the teams, and gave each one their purpose.

John, Annabel and Jane were together (at Michael’s request). Worthing, Joey and Angus made up another team. These two teams also had two Gravesend leeries taking their totals to five. Deake joined four other leeries to make the third team and several others were made up, five Gravesend leeries in each. Overall, they managed to get together twenty five teams to support the main group, which was smaller to help keep them better hidden. Jack and Georgie were originally going to go as a pair, but Michael was adamant to join them. After the disaster of their first attempt, he refused to let Georgie be put in danger while he wasn’t by his side. However, despite this, Jack couldn’t help but feel that a lack of trust between them was at least partially to blame.

The plan was to have each team take a van to Buckingham Palace and pretend to be launching an assault. Jack, Georgie and Michael would be in the back of one of the vans and, once the battle was taking place, they’d sneak through the confusion and enter the palace while the guards were distracted. The other teams would be lighting the monsters on fire to turn them back while the trio would make their way inside. Using Georgie’s powers, they’d protect themselves long enough for Jack to use the incantation and for Georgie to banish Blight to the shadows.

Each team had plans and multiple backups if things went wrong. There was no chance they’d be caught off guard. After that, the rest of the day was dedicated to helping Georgie get to grips with his powers and for anyone who wasn’t helping in that endeavour, to prepare for a fight. Of course, the ability to fully master them and utilise his abilities effectively, took years of practice, but in a couple of hours, you could learn how to control them well enough. And as they were in a pinch, they were happy for that to be the case. By the end of the day, every single person was exhausted, but every single person was all completely confident in the knowledge that they were 100% ready for anything Blight had to throw at them.


	14. Take Two

Georgie. Jack. Michael. Hardly the stuff of legends. But this time they had an army. And an army can make all the difference. Also a plan. But an army’s probably the more memorable fact. 125 people split into 5-man teams, each equipped with lighting poles, wood and lighters to prevent their flames from going out, not to mention their individual medical kits to aid the newly turned citizens and the countless knives they secretly adorned. They were ready for anything as each team crammed themselves into a van and sped off. For the journey there, the trio drove in with Jane’s team. It was the final chance for comforting words and going over the plan for the fifth time that day. By now, they knew it inside out and back to front.

Other than their purposeful conversations, they didn’t say much else. They only said what they needed to to prepare themselves and spent the rest of the time in silence. A silence that weighed a ton. Crushing their spirits as a hot tension rose, filling the van with a sickly clammy heat. Despite this, they couldn’t help but feel cold anticipation sending bone racking shivers through their bodies. They knew they could theoretically attempt this again, but it felt like that wasn’t true. As if, somehow, they could all very easily die and never bring London back to the light. The crumbling streets only added to the sense of hopelessness, the fear that things will never be the same again, that their friends were really gone, that they’d never be able to enjoy life again as they once had done and that no matter how many times they tried, they’d never be able to win. But as the faces of the fallen flashed through their minds, nothing could stop the seething determination from pulsing through their veins at the thought that maybe, just maybe, they’d be able to salvage their lives.

It was 01:23 when they arrived at the corner between Chester Street and Upper Belgrave Street. This was where Jack, Michael and Georgie were to be dropped off to sneak into the Palace, not too far away, but not too close to be noticed.

“Be safe.” With Jane’s wish fresh in their minds, they hugged goodbye before the van drove off to enact their part of the plan, leaving the three on the pavement.

“Come on,” Jack whispered, “this way.” They took off running past the grand terraced houses on Chester Street until they arrived at Grosvenor Place where they crossed over to reach the back wall of the Buckingham Palace Gardens.

Looking up at it, the old beaten wall was about 8ft tall with a layer of barbed wire along the top. It seemed as though Blight had always planned to set up at the palace, because not a single part of the wall had received damage like the buildings on the surrounding streets had done. Without hesitation, Jack held out his hands to Michael to give him a boost. He accepted, and once balanced on his hands and held up, he pulled a small set of wire cutters from his coat pocket and dealt with the barbed wire, removing it for their safe passage. Once he completed the task, he dropped down on the other side, ready to go.

“Ready?” Jack asked.

“Ready. It’s all clear.” Upon hearing Michael’s response, Jack looked to Georgie, giving him a comforting grin, before offering his hands out for a boost. He had to push Georgie up a lot higher to get him to the top of the wall, but his small body and therefore lighter weight meant this wasn’t too difficult to do. Once he was up on top of the wall, Michael held out his arms to catch him as his son pushed himself off the edge and dropped to the ground. After Michael caught him, there was a brief moment of panic when Georgie thought he heard someone coming, but thankfully, that was merely his imagination and they were able to continue their plan. As Jack had no help getting over the wall, it was a bit more difficult to reach up to the top, but his climbing experience meant that he had an advantage and was able to get to the other side fairly quickly.

It was around this time that Jack started feeling rather strange: as if his knees would collapse and he’d throw up. He tried to pin it on nerves, but as they walked through the trees, it was becoming difficult to ignore. Still, they pressed on, never leaving the safety of the wooded area around the edge of the gardens as they made their way to the back of the palace.

Every step was becoming unbearable, and even Michael noticed Jack’s pale face. It wasn’t a good sign, or something they’d specifically prepared for. When they came to a stop a little way from the palace, Michael looked out of the tree line to see if there was anything patrolling the perimeter that they’d need to watch out for as they got closer. He couldn’t see anything too concerning, everything was as they expected, with monsters guarding the areas they guessed they would.

There came a shuffling behind him and after a moment, a rather panicked Georgie quietly hissed,

“Father! Help!” When he turned around, he was horrified to see Georgie trying to steady Jack who was breathing heavily as he holding his head in agony. He was biting his tongue trying not to scream in pain, and had managed to do so hard enough that he had caused it to bleed. But before Michael could even reach him, his shaking legs gave out and Jack dropped to his knees, muttering under his breath,

“Shutupshutupshutupshutup.”

“Woah Jack, what’s wrong!” He didn’t get a response though. Jack seemed to just curl in on himself more trying to block out whatever he was hearing. But the most concerning bit was the blood from his mouth. Although the injury was nothing to worry about, the blood that had been running red from his lips was turning an inky black. As his body started shaking, Michael couldn’t help it as his voice grew more frantic.

“Jack! Come on! Talk to me!” They sat there desperately trying to figure out what to do for what felt like forever, in reality, it was about a minute. Finally, Jack stopped muttering and shaking. As his frantic breathing began to calm down he opened his eyes and looked at Michael, just as terrified as to what just happened and looking completely lost. Michael reaches out and put his hands on his shoulders as a way to, hopefully, ground the leerie back in reality. After a few moments, Jack let out a sigh as he lowered his hands from his head to hold onto Michael’s arms, hanging his head to take a breath.

“Are you ok?” He was met with a nod and an exhausted ‘yeah’.

“What was that?” Jack raised his eyes to Michael’s and the look on his face was not a healthy one. Sweat dropped down his pale forehead and his eyes looked sore and irritated. But thankfully, as he spoke to him, the blood running down his face was turning back to its normal red colour.

“It was Blight. I could- I could hear him- giving orders to his uh- to his minions.” Michael’s jaw dropped. Was he still connected? Was he able to be controlled?

“What was he saying?”

“He was- he was... ordering them to attack,”He squeezed his eyes shut as if to try and remember what to he’d heard and put them in to expressible words, “he wanted them to attack the others. They must’ve started with the plan.”

“Then we need to get on with ours then. We can’t let them down.” Jack nodded in agreement, “ok then, come on.” Michael stood up and helped Jack to do the same before patting him one last time on the shoulder for encouragement. He had no idea what else to do. They had to get going again, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t help but worry about Jack. He still didn’t look great, and this new problem was probably going to ruin the plan if they weren’t careful. He made it his duty to keep an eye out for him, making sure that he was still alright and so he could protect him if things went wrong.

Shuffling cautiously, they continued to make their way through the trees until they came to the palace. Scanning the building, they remembered their plan: they couldn’t enter through a door even if the coast seemed clear, Blight would almost certainly have it guarded in some way. Instead, they were going to have to climb up the building and enter through a window, or any other hatch they could find. Things weren’t looking too good though. There didn’t seem to be an easy way up. The gaps between anything possible to hold on, were too large for Georgie to be able to reach and Michael would still struggle due to his lack of climbing experience. Jack knew he could help Michael, but getting Georgie up there as well, would be a challenge.

Jack gave the signal to run out of the tree line and to the main building, heading to an area of wall that was free of any monsters, at least for the moment. They’d have to be quick if they wanted to get in before anyone turned up. As Jack looked up the wall, trying to piece together the best route, Georgie piped up,

“There’s a shoot!” Michael and Jack turned and were more than surprised to find a rubbish shoot over a bin.

“I could climb up that.” As Jack opened it up and inspected the inside, he figured that Georgie was probably right in his assumption. Although the shaft stunk, it was wide enough for the young boy to fit inside, but narrow enough for him to easily shuffle upwards and sit against the wall. It’d be a bit like climbing a chimney, but it was certainly possible, not to mention, easier than it would be to have him climb the palace walls and crawl through a window. It was definitely the best option available. Jack looked to Michael to see if Georgie had his permission, and although he was a little apprehensive, when he looked at the wall and back at the shoot, he finally gave him the ‘go ahead’.

With that, Jack lifted him to the shoot and let him crawl inside. Once in, they stood and listened as he shuffled up, and once sure he wouldn’t have too much trouble going up, they set about their own task of climbing the palace wall. The main problem would be that above the ground floor, a balcony jutted out and ran all along the wall and there was very little to grab under the balcony. From then onwards, the wall was just smooth all the way up. After noticing the metal bar fence around the edge of the balcony, he got an idea.

“Give me a boost.” Wordlessly, Michael held out his hands to Jack and pushed him up to reach the balcony. Jack quickly took a hold of the bars, pulling himself up and checking if anyone was there to see him. Seeing nothing, he figured some of the guards had been distracted by their teams’ assault and fire, so he got to work.

Standing on the outer side of the fence, he pressed his feet between the bars and turned them outwards to hold himself as he lay back over the edge of the balcony, dangled down to reach Michael a bit better. It was still a little high for him and Michael had to jump a bit to reach him, but it did the job well enough. He grabbed Jack’s arm while the leerie pulled him up high enough for him to reach the fence to climb the rest of the way. To say the whole stunt had been difficult would be an understatement and they both, although neither would admit it, panicked a little when Jack’s feet nearly slipped back between the bars, Michael even made a surprised squeak at the moment he thought they’d fall. Thankfully however, it didn’t happen.

Once up, they both climbed back over the railing and had a look around the balcony, peering through the windows to find the best room to enter and to see if they could spot Georgie inside yet. Despite their hopes, however, they didn’t spot him inside. But they did spot one of the monsters wandering the halls and since they didn’t want anyone to know they were there, they avoided the potential fight and moved to the other end of the balcony to make their entrance. After assessing each one, they decided on a window entering one of the state rooms would be the best option. So Jack pulled out a set of lock picks and showed off his rather suspicious talent (in Michael’s opinion) of breaking in. Jack would later claim he could only do that because he’d locked himself out of his own house more times than he cared to count, though Michael wasn’t completely convinced.

After a few minutes of fiddling, Jack finally managed to get unlock the window and pushed it open with a satisfied grin on his face. Without hesitation, they both climbed in, closing it behind them to prevent arousing any suspicion.

The bedroom they had entered was very lavish; a large king sized bad sat in the centre of the red and gold room. Paintings on the walls depicted historic members of the royal family over the years, adorning the walls in glistening frames. Had they not been in such a precarious situation, they’d have loved to explore the palace properly and enjoy the lavish lifestyle it supported, but alas, it was hardly the time. They very quickly remembered what they were sent here to do when they heard the shuffling outside.

Outside, an unusual sounding hum vibrated through the door. Clicking steps made their way closer as Jack and Michael realised something was going to come in. Whether it had actually heard them entering, or just decided to patrol through the room, they didn’t know. But when they saw the door handle turn slightly, Jack and Michael were very quick to hide. In a moment of pure silent panic, the two scrambled to find a hiding spot. This moment of sudden fear was enough to make a man wish to burst and fail to be able to think why, which is why their hiding spots were not the most creative.

Without a moment’s thought, Michael raced to the bed side and squeezed himself beneath it, while Jack pressed himself into the wardrobe. The wardrobe has clearly been in regular use, as it was full of luxurious clothes, making it difficult to stand inside it properly and to keep his balance. Unfortunately for him, it was at this point that a newly familiar feeling began to take over. A pounding through his skull threatened to split his head open as he desperately tried to resist the urge to scream in unspeakable agony. The taste of blood was still fresh in his mouth and couldn’t bear the thought of opening another wound in an effort to stay quiet. But he had to be silent, they were in the room, prowling to find intruders. A hissing voice filled his ears, barking orders that he couldn’t understand as his head swam. The consuming darkness of the wardrobe made it impossible for him to even notice that his vision was blurring and his world was spinning. It was only when he lost balance that he realised.

Instinctively, his foot slipped backwards to prop himself up as he nearly fell back, unfortunately, instincts aren’t always very carefully carried out. The heel of his foot hit the back wall of the wardrobe and a echoing thump, that was far too loud for the otherwise silent room, reverberated for all to hear. He would’ve cursed had he been able to form such a word. Thankfully, the blinding pain was preventing him from doing so. But it didn’t matter. They’d heard. Never had a man ever wished so hard to have never existed. As he tried not to tremble from the anticipation flooding his stomach and violently choking him, he could only wait as the steps came closer.

And closer.

And closer.

And closer.

With a swift pull on the handles, the doors were flung open. The light burst in and revealed him to their hunter. Someone that he knew very well: Kate Banks.


	15. I Know Her

When the thump came, Michael couldn’t tell who or what caused it. It couldn’t be himself, surely. He had been completely still. He hadn’t dared to move or even breath when he saw the bottoms of those black spires wandering into the room. They had scuttled so slowly and gracefully, as if it knew its mere presence would cause any intruders to show themselves. Michael had a first thought that was silly, but it seemed to work when that thump came from the wardrobe. In their panic, Michael hadn’t even noticed where Jack had hidden, but now it was pretty obvious. The palace was well used by the royal family before all this started, so he had figured the wardrobe would be pretty full, which is why he’d not bothered to get in it and get under the bed. But it seemed as though Jack hadn’t thought of that, and now, he was about to be discovered. He could only hope that he hadn’t actually hidden there.

The creature scuttled over and in one motion, ripped the wardrobe door from its hinges and threw it across the room. And despite Michael’s wish, Jack was inside. He couldn’t see him very well from his spot, but something was definitely wrong with him. His hands were shaking, he looked pale, and after he spotted his heavy breathing and black blood, it didn’t take a genius to work out what had caused him to make that noise.

He didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t in any position where he could be injured without consequence, but Jack couldn’t fight back, not in that state. And after all their work, they couldn’t let Blight be alerted to their presence. Not yet. Not now!

Without any thought, Michael rolled out from under the bed, and in a moment of desperate bravery, charged at the creature. The thing barely had a chance to turn around before Michael had pulled out his knife and plunged it straight into the back of its neck, plunging all the way through and pinning it too the floor. He probably surprised himself more than the beast, guess the practice really paid off. The beast let out a powerful scream that sounded slightly human, and it was then that he realised Jack had also shouted.

Jack practically fell out of the wardrobe to help the beast, much to Michael’s astonishment. His voice was trembling as much as his hands which hovered over its writhing body, unsure of what to do.

“What the hell did you do that for?!” His mouth hung agape as he tried to understand what could possibly be wrong.

“What do you mean?!” Jack looked between Michael and the beast with wide eyes as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Wha- this is Kate!” What? It couldn’t be. It was a huge hulking monstrosity, not his dead wife! Michael tried to see whatever Jack was seeing, but he couldn’t bring himself to see anything more than a writhing monsters body, even as he gave it a little kick.

“Nope, this is definitely one of Blight’s monsters. Are you really seeing it as Kate?” Jack looked back down to the body and reached out to touch it. He couldn’t believe Michael when he said that, but when he laid his hand on the large head, from his view, his hand only made it partially to Kate’s smaller head. It was true. But that still meant he was confused. What was he seeing? Then it hit him. He was able to see these monsters as the people that they once were before their corruption, and no doubt due to the connection he still had with Blight.

But this revelation was soon interrupted by the beasts loud roar. It seemed Michael’s handiwork wasn’t as good as they thought, as the beast ripped its neck from the ground, taking the blade with it. Desperately, Jack tried to reach over his body to get a lighter. He could change her back. He could free her. He could have her back again. But the beast was too interested in Michael to give Jack a chance to do anything. It dived onto him, pinning Michael down by his shirt with its sharp pointed legs. It screamed in his face and was just about to kill him, but thankfully, it was a little too late.

“GET OFF MY DAD!” A new voice shouted from the door and barely half a second later, a golden beam blasted through the creatures head. As all life drained from its body and the eery glow of its eyes died, so did the creature, lifelessly falling on top of Michael as it did so.

“Yay! I got him!” All eyes turned to the door, where Georgie bounced up and down in celebration of his first kill.

“Yeah... well done, just like we practised.” Jack wasn’t really focussing on Georgie, he instead was trying to let his tired mind try to catch up with what just happened. As Michael sat up and shoved the beast off him, it was clear that there was a rather large smoking hole passing through the side of its head. When Jack stood up and helped up Michael, they both couldn’t help but stare at it. Of course they’d watched Georgie practice using his powers the day before, but it was another thing entirely to murder something with it, never mind the fact that he was so happy about it. But at least it meant he wouldn’t hesitate.

“Come on then,” Michael pressed, “let’s go.” Jack was more than a little surprised at his hurriedness to leave.

“But what about Kate?” Michael looked back at the body. It’s true that he did want to help her, but if they freed her from the creatures body, she’d be in the same state, if not worse than Jack had been. There was no way they’d be able to keep her safe. But at least if they left her, then Blight would have no reason to attack her, and she’d be perfectly safe if anything went wrong. Which all lead to his final decision,

“We’ll come get her later. Right now, we need to keep moving.” So that’s what they did. Before Georgie had a chance to ask what they meant by ‘Kate’, they had left the room and were heading off to finally find Blight and end this once and for all. Though as they went, they couldn’t very easily ignore the anxious thoughts of how everyone else would be faring.

Really, it was a good thing they didn’t dwell on the thoughts of the various other teams providing their distraction. While they were glad to be burning the monsters and freeing the people, one thing they hadn’t been so ready for, was the amount of fire there’d be. Hundreds of leeries setting fire to hundreds of giant running beasts meant everywhere you went, there was a wall of towering flames. Quite the problem. Especially when the ground is littered with the unconscious bodies of those that you’ve saved.

For Jane, this was especially stressful. Being one of the few people helping out that wasn’t a leerie, meant she was also one of the few who could be physically harmed with real lasting consequences. In fact, only herself, Michael, John and Annabel had this to contend with since Georgie got Jack’s light. This was why Jane had made sure that John and Annabel stayed with either herself, or one of the leeries at all times, or else they’d no doubt be burnt alive.

As for Jane, she had ended up a fair way away from her team and was having difficulty with her job. She’d managed to drag several people away from the fire, but was completely surrounded by beasts that she was struggling to keep up with. There was just so many. It was slowly becoming impossible to set one on fire before it had a chance to get too close to you. Honestly, she thought, if any of those monsters were still at the palace, she’d go mad. How on earth could there be so many?!

Each different group had lured some of the beasts away from the palace and currently, she and her team were on a street at the side of Hyde Park, furthest away from the palace. The other groups had managed to successfully manage similar distances, and Jane could see spots of smoke and flames in the distance where each team had lured them to. But they didn’t have time to think too much on their success, they had to hold out until Jack, Georgie and Michael could defeat Blight.

As Jane dodged and jabbed, despite her concentration, the large number of her enemies meant she was completely caught off guard by a set of jaws suddenly clamping down on her flaming torch, and wrenching it from her grip. Shit. Now they have fire.

Desperately, Jane scrambled to reach for another torch and a lighter, but her otherwise simple task was made twice as difficult as she dived out of the way of the hulking large monstrosity, barrelling towards her with a flaming torch. She rolled out of the way, but unfortunately was too slow.

It took a few moments to register what was going on, why it was so hot. Her arm was uncomfortably warm. But then she saw it. Orange glowing flames dancing on the fabric of her coat, gradually eating through her sleeve. Let me just say, “panicked” couldn’t come close to describing her thoughts and wild actions.

Without thinking, her hands ripped at the belt on her beige coat before plucking each button free, with so much haste it only minimised her speed. She could feel something very wrong with her arm. No longer was the heat just uncomfortable, but it had burnt through enough for it to actually be painful. A stinging bite was ripping through her shirt to devour the flesh underneath before moving on to consume the rest of her body. Jane wasn’t too keen on the feeling and so the moment her coat was undone, she flung it to the floor, as far away from her as possible.

Thankfully, the sudden and swift removal of her arm from the sleeve, seemed to pat out the flames nibbling at her shirt beneath. But one thing that it failed to do, was protect any equipment in the coat pockets. When she flung it to the floor, it only took seconds before it completely burst into flames, feeding on the lighters in the pockets and burning through anything else it could find.

Now, facing down a pack of monsters, all she had left to defend herself with, was a knife. Something that couldn’t do more than hurt and inconvenience them. But as she looked them in the eye, she didn’t run away. She’d like to think it was because she was brave, but it was more a case of knowing it was hopeless to run, and being too scared to try. So instead, with her fake bravery, she prepared herself for her final moments. She’d helped a lot, but now it was over.

Legs surrounded her as glowing eyes looked closer, shining brighter and burning faster than the flames that could destroy any of them. Despite her trembling hands, the grip on the blade’s handle was solid and constant as she hoped and prayed that something, anything would happen and just get it all over with.

And her wish was granted. But not as she expected.

Across London, everything stopped. In total unison, the beasts raised their heads, listening. Something was calling them. Their heads began to turn, one by one. And no matter their position in the city, they were all looking to the exact same thing. A chorus of roaring filled the sky as they gave a signal to charge, suddenly bounding away from their easy targets and heading toward the centre of London. The sea of darkness flooded through the streets coming closer and closer as the city’s survivors watched in total confusion.

Jane and her team couldn’t see exactly where they were going, only the direction. They gathered in the street wondering what their next move should be. They hadn’t prepared for this. For the longest time they did nothing, silently brainstorming with themselves to rack their tired minds for a solution of some kind. But then out of the blue, it hit them. Or more specifically, it hit John: they were going to the palace to defend Blight. The final battle had begun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See you next Saturday! We’re almost there, it’s gonna be a long one...


	16. The Battle Of Buckingham

Georgie Banks.

Jack Hackney.

Michael Banks.

The stuff of legends. A courageous boy. A fearless leerie. A determined father. Nothing was going to stop them. Nothing could even come close. They were ready. They’d practised. Every eventuality had been prepared for. All they had to do, was put their plan into action.

It had taken a lot of patience; a painfully slow walk consisting of regularly hiding and taking long diversions to avoid obstacles. They couldn’t allow themselves to be caught by anything else; they were already on the verge of losing their advantage of surprise. The palace was huge and filled with hundreds of rooms in a long and convoluted maze that meant, by the time they came to the end of it, their legs were burning and their swollen feet ached. But they did reach the end of it. And that end was when they found Blight.

He had chosen to go on a little walk, abandoning the throne room in favour of enjoying the night air in the central courtyard. After all, it was quite satisfying to stand in a courtyard and be surrounded on all four sides by your very own stolen palace. He’d only fed his ego further by choosing to dress as the king. The heavy crown and robes seemed to have embedded themselves into the thick sludge coating his body, slowly sinking to reach whatever skeleton lay beneath.

The trio were stood in the doorway, watching with baited breaths. If they wanted to begin the banishment, they needed to get closer. But that would mean stepping out into the open and moving pretty far from any exit. Unfortunately for them, however, it wasn’t like they had any other options.

Georgie was the first to make a move. With an uncertain movement, his arms circled around themselves to produce a defensive shield for the group and with a rather difficult level of concentration, managed to keep it held in a physical form. However, the glowing shield may have been made to protect, but it in fact did wonders to attract Blight’s attention. The freak slowly turned to the ‘heroes’ with a way-too-sharp-toothed grin as a deep rumbling chuckle bellowed from deep within his gut at the sight of Georgie.

“My goodness. You really are determined.” He looked to Michael and Jack, “You’ve gathered a new team I see. Is this your father?” They remained silent, instead choosing to hold a sinister glare at him. “And I must say I’m more than a little surprised to see you again.” He stared at Jack. “It’s a shame really. In the right circumstances you could be useful, but you’re all just being pests and are absolutely in need of extermination. Oh well, if I must, I must.”

Without a moment of anything even slightly resembling hesitation, Blight created a ball of smoke to send barrelling towards the group where, to his dismay, it dissipated the moment it came into contact with the shield.

“Ha!” Georgie beamed.

“Oh don’t get too confident, my boy!” Blight hissed as his body began to contort, but for once, not into a disguise. His body tore and ripped as his bones were pulled apart, resized and rearranged, leaving his skin racing to cover his body again when the bones pushed through. Through creaking and snapping, Blight’s body contorted and grew to be at least 30ft tall, with its now ginormous clawed feet shredding through the concrete of the courtyard as he let out a mighty uproar. The tiny trio all went as white as sheets as they gazed upon the new size of their opponent and began to feel more than just a bit overwhelmed.

“Well, I suppose we should get to it then.” Michael tried to sound calm, but when Jack and Georgie looked at him with a face of horror, he felt a little worse.

The first blast came, and like Blight, it had also grown. A thick ball of smoke spun towards them as the three crowded behind the shield while their plan fell apart. The second blast was just as bad. A hulking mass beating against their minimal defence with every ounce of strength Blight could muster. The barrage continued, one after the other, taking the strength of all three of them to keep themselves from being pushed back too far, but even then, their feet were slipping. As the beating wore on and Blight’s laughter became louder and louder and louder, it was time for action.

“We need to fight back!” Jack shouted over the din. Michael shot back,

“How are we meant to do that? We have to protect ourselves!”

“If we stay behind the shield, nothing will happen and we’ll just be waiting for it to break. We need to move. Split up and run around him on our own, he won’t be able to hit all of us. It should provide enough of a distraction to avoid some blasts and actually start getting some hits on him.” Michael was certainly unsure if he was ready for such a thing, but as he gripped the handle of his knife, he realised it was a necessary risk. Still, that didn’t help the overwhelming sense of guilt that built up as he looked down to Georgie, his own son, risking his life for something he was far too young to need to defend. But he hadn’t complained. Not once. He just shut up and got on with it, turning fear into bravery and using it to his advantage. Michael could only hope and pray that he was strong enough to do the same. Just do it for Kate.

All reflections were cut short as Blight sent out another shot. The smoke was barely deflected by the shield which shattered against the force, leaving the three completely vulnerable. As Georgie looked down in horror at the shield’s remains, he didn’t even notice Jack and Michael splitting up and dashing across the yard to put their plan in place. Their distraction seemed to work as when Jack’s voice cut through the air, Georgie looked up to see Blight facing away from him.

“GET HIM!” He could barely remember how to do it, but as Blight’s head snapped around and glowing eyes bore into his soul, muscle memory kicked in and saved him. He flung his arms into position, and as Blight began to charge, he let loose a large golden beam of light, blazing forward and burning a hole right through the thick sludge of his body and back out the other side. He let out a hellish cry of agony and fell as his momentum continued to carry him onwards. Georgie barely had a free moment to dive out of the way as his colossal body made contact with the palace walls.

The resounding crash echoed through the central quadrangle as rubble stumbled from the wall, tumbling and falling all over his body in a light dusting of stone. Georgie almost had a moment to celebrate as he ran... almost. Blight was hardly beaten. The sludge from the area around his wound began to drip and fill in the hole, sealing it and leaving the impression that it was never opened in the first place. He rose back to his feet and once he’d regained his balance, his arm made a sweep over the yard. Jack was just about able to get out of the way, Michael was a moment too late, but as Blight wasn’t interested in him so much, he merely knocked him over with the side of his arm in passing. It was Georgie that he was after.

Boney claws wound their way around Georgie’s torso and squeezed, seeming to suck the life out of him.

“GEORGIE!” Michael’s cry resonated around the yard, but Blight took no notice, he was far too entertained by the boy squirming in his grasp. With next to no air in his lungs, Georgie was finding it particularly difficult to concentrate enough to produce any light to fight back. And without such an ability, he didn’t stand a chance.

He could barely focus on anything even as Michael and Jack started gathering their supplies, each taking a plank and lighting it, before turning to Blight so Michael could make his demand,

“Drop him!” When a sneer was the only response, Jack was the first to charge, followed closely by Michael. The pair raised their flaming torches and ran to his feet. They could do little more than be a small nuisance to him, but as they began to burn through his claws, the fire managed to cause enough pain for Blight to let out a distressed squeak. He started to violently kick at the two men clinging to his ankles, flinging Michael loose and across the yard, before Jack lost his grip, fell off, and was given a hard kick out of the way. The two landed hard on the concrete and as Georgie looked at their sorrowful state, he couldn’t help but get angry. He watched as his father struggled to push himself from the ground, his whole body tired and sore. And Jack, arm wrapped protectively around his aching chest as he tried to catch his breath again enough to even attempt to get up.

“This is it? This was your master plan?” Blight sneered, “If that’s it then I must say I’m getting rather bored now. I think I’d prefer to have the others deal with you. It’d be much more entertaining.” So Blight did just that, a telepathic call rang out to all his minions across London. If these three were so tough, let them prove it. But his entertainment arrived much sooner than he expected. As he made the call, Jack already had his hands on his head as, once again, his mind began to hurt as if he was burning and freezing at the same time from the inside out.

“Oh, now this is interesting.” Georgie was forced to watch his friend unable to move as the agony took over, consuming his mind, his world. He’d had enough. The boy couldn’t stand it anymore. He wasn’t going to allow anyone to do this to his family any more. A deep, brooding, bubbling anger was eating away through his gut. But finally, it decided to make itself known. Despite his difficulties, pure hatred surged through his veins just enough to strengthen his body and clear his mind for the growing golden light to grow within him. Bubbling and stretching and growing, gradually forcing Blight’s claws to open with it.

“Leave. Him. ALONE!” With a burst of energy, the light erupted from his body, burning Blight’s hand and forcing him to drop him. The landing may have been more painful if his power hadn’t completely taken ahold of him, but his glowing eyes were enough to tell anyone that he’d certainly had enough of this. Even when the roar of the approaching beasts began to fill his ears, he paid no mind. Even when fear and dread filled his father and Jack, he still didn’t mind. And as Blight chuckled, Ready to watch the carnage, he still didn’t care. He’d had enough of this. He’d had enough of all of it.

With the rage boiling and the light growing, he let forth a burst of energy, shooting past everyone and burning Blight as it went. As massive shield encapsulated the interior courtyard, blocking anything from getting in or out. Inside the shield, they watched the light begin to blind Blight as the white orbs that he called ‘eyes’, began to sizzle and boil in his face with a satisfying trail of smoke. The trio squinted in the light to see Blights body beginning to suffer cruel burns all over him as his eyes finally popped and oozed their remains down his cheeks as boiling tears. He fell onto his chest and in his desperation, clawed arms frantically scrabbled to reach the group to put a stop to it, but alas, he was too far away to reach. He tried to call for help from his minions, but it only caused further pain; Jack had to suffer through the orders, and the beasts on the roof of the palace only burnt if they tried to reach past the shield. Their smaller bodies only seemed to make the light’s effects worse as Georgie watched one try to push a leg through, but when it pulled back, it didn’t have a leg anymore.

Georgie turned away from Blight and looked to Jack. Michael was by his side, helping him up when the boy caught their eye.

“Come on.” His glowing eyes and emanating light seemed to make him look ethereal, and when Jack approached, it had the exact same effect on him. From up above, they could vaguely hear the sound of the leeries’ arrival and the ensuing assault, but they barely noticed it as the two came face to face with Blight.

“You ready?”

Georgie nodded.

“Ok. Let’s go.”

Without giving anything a chance to stop them, Jack began the incantation. Whispered concepts and sounds plucked from memory, gently passed his lips starting quietly and gradually growing in volume. A hissing that was sharp enough to slice the foundation of the earth before viciously shredding it and ripping it wide open. A violent rumble tore through the concrete as the ground weakened and gravel began to fall in through the void below. The two were locked in a trance as they watched Blight desperately try to hold on, but as the hole became wider, his struggles only increased. Now it was Georgie’s turn.

As Jack continued, Georgie began to pull on the shield encapsulating the yard, gradually dragging it inwards, closer and closer to Blight and the ground. As the shield grew smaller, it could no longer keep the monsters from getting in. They wandered closer as Michael and the teams of leeries tried not to become overwhelmed by them. They clawed and screamed but couldn’t do anything more than watch as the shield grew smaller, pressing into Blight, burning him as it pushed his body deeper and deeper. He tried to call to his minions, knowing they couldn’t help, but hoping the message would get Jack to stop. But with the blinding light encircling them, the message could barely travel further than his own mind. It was pointless.

Blight was forced to hear his world crumble, his monsters burn, but couldn’t even look his murderers in the eyes through his own boiled ones. Instead, he was forced further down as an agonised scream ruptured his throat and made him finally give in. It only took Georgie one last shove of the burning shield to have him pushed completely into the hole, finally deep enough to be sealed properly. As Jack hissed the end of the incantation, the earth’s seams were stitched and sewn together, grafted with rubble from the palace to seal the wound.

It could’ve stopped there. It could have. But with so much energy coursing through his veins, Georgie couldn’t help himself. With the last bit of strength he had left, he let the shield burst, growing and expanding across London, burning each dark creature as it went and sending the freed victims back where they were meant to be, before finally dissipating. Nothing was uneffected. And as it cleansed the land of demons, London also seemed to be cleansed of the damage caused by them. The ash of fires was stripped away as shattered windows glued themselves back together and erased the cracks. And as the night went silent, over in the distance, the chimes of Big Ben could be heard, where the tower now stood, one again, large and proud.

There was silence. The fighting had stopped. The yelling had stopped. The struggle had stopped. And as the light faded from their eyes, Jack and Georgie were the first to realise: it was over. It was actually over, they did it! They lived! A surge of what can only be called, ‘utter joy’, threatened to knock them down as an enormous cheer erupted in the courtyard. Everyone gathered together, cheering, hugging, shouting, crying, you name it, it was happening. The chorus of rejoicing warmed the cold air of the night as Michael gathered up his son into an almost crushing hug as he fought the urge to cry. Annabel and John were just as quick to join them, leaping into his arms and holding on for dear life.

“I’m so glad you’re okay! I’m so glad you’re okay!”

“That was awesome!!” They bellowed.

Out of the crowd of leeries came Jane. As soon as she spotted her family, she raced right to their side, but as Michael was a little preoccupied trying to hold onto all three children, her attention turned to Jack. She laughed as she approached him, grabbed his face and planting a triumphant kiss on his lips, almost knocking him over in the process.

“That was so good!!” She squealed. Jack was just dumbfounded as he stood there laughing awkwardly while trying to ignore the heat of his flushing face.

“Yeah,” his voice cracked, “it was pretty good!” Jane just giggled and flung herself into his arms for another hug as Jack was screaming with excitement in his own mind,

‘Oooooh!! This is happening! This is a thing that is happening!’

Out of the celebrations came a booming voice.

“What on earth is going on here?!” All eyes turned to see a collection of palace guards, who were all clearly confused to have all only just woken up since the initial attack on London. In the end, it was Worthing who explained what was going on, and although they were glad to be alive, they weren’t too keen on having strangers roaming the palace grounds after such an event. But when the king stepped outside, they happily changed their tune.

“You saved London? My goodness! Then I must extend my deepest gratitudes to you.”

“You’re more than welcome.” In all the chaos over the previous week, they seemed to have almost forgotten that this was Buckingham Palace and that King George V lived there. Everyone was a little more surprised than they probably should have been to actually see him there.

“I assume we won’t be having to worry about any future attacks of this nature then?”

“Of course you won’t. That’s over and done with now. He’s banished. He won’t be coming back.” The words may have been true, but even as Worthing said them, he could hardly believe them himself. They’d actually done it. Then it hit him. The creatures had be converted. The leeries were alive!

Worthing barged over to his three surviving leeries, startling them in the process. But when Jack, Joey and Angus heard what he had to say, they were more than a little excited. This prompted the other leeries to remember their own companies. The Gravesend leeries promptly said their goodbyes to dash off back home, leaving the now much smaller group behind. Deake stood off to the side a little awkwardly. He too wanted to go find his friends from his company, so after saying goodbye to his new friends, he too dashed off.

As Worthing looked at his lads, he smiled fondly.

“I suppose you’ll be wanting to get back to your own families now? Well let me just say: I’m so proud of you. And we’re gonna get all the lads together and have a party to celebrate.” He gave each leerie a big hug before they parted. Worthing wanted to go check in with the rest of his employees while Joey and Angus were more than excited to go see their parents.

“Come on Joey! If all the monsters got turned back, then dad must be alive too! Come on, we’ve gotta go, it’s been ten years and I’m not going to wait any longer!” Angus tugged on Joey’s sleeve leaving his brother only a chance to give a half wave before being dragged off.

The remaining party eventually found themselves sitting outside the palace as the sun was just beginning to rise. Michael, Jane, Jack, John, Georgie and Annabel. The stuff of legends. Saving the day as if it was actually their job. It had been a hard time with a lot more tears shed than any of them would ever care to admit. And as the morning sun peeked over the skyline to bask them in its early warmth, things would only get better as a someone approached the group and laid a gentle hand on Michael’s shoulder.

“Hey.” The gentle voice told Michael just how good his life was going to be getting now, as he turned around to see none other than his beautiful wife standing behind him, her gorgeous face highlighted by heaven’s sun.

“Kate...” he couldn’t help it when the tears welled up. And he couldn’t resist the urge to draw her into a much needed embrace, one he had needed since the day he’d lost her.

“Michael.” Her voice was equally shaky, “it’s been far too long.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter comes next week. I’ve had a ton of fun writing this and am sad it’s nearly over. But we’re not done quite yet. I’ll see you all next week!


	17. A Million Lights In London

They’d been away for far too long in his personal opinion. Georgie had only been to school, but it felt like way too long. They’d only just saved London, but for some reason, they still had to go. But at least he’d done it. The day was over. And it’s not like they didn’t get any break. They had the Sunday to relax, but now since the half-term holiday was over, he was back to work. Still, it made for an interesting tale when his friends asked what he did over the holiday.

Georgie was busy kicking a rock down the street, so he didn’t notice that John and Annabel had stopped walking. Well, he realised when he walked into the back of his older brother. He looked slightly annoyed, but stopped caring pretty quickly as he pointed across the street.

“Look, Georgie!” Following his siblings’ line of sight, he too spotted what they were looking at. It was Joey and Angus with both their parents: Rose and Rupert. They looked very happy to be reaffirming their bonds on some kind of family walk, and it was certainly a sweet sight to see. It made him think of his own family, how they’d all practically dived onto their mother when she came back. He was fairly certain that not one person had managed to get through that day without crying. The thought only seemed to fuel his enthusiasm to get back home again just to see his mother. He had always known he’d missed her, but now that he had her back, it was so much clearer just how much it had really effected him. 

He looked over at the happy family once again and waved. They noticed, smiled and waved back. It just felt nice to be able to do normal things again. So off they went down the road back home. The spring sun was warm and well accepted by everyone in the busy streets, but the Banks children didn’t mind leaving it in favour of their family, once they got home.

When they knocked on the door, they were pleasantly surprised to see Ellen answer it. They’d been told she’d be coming back, but after the week they’d had, it felt like she hadn’t just been ill, but had died and been resurrected. They practically tackled her in a hug to welcome her back that left her more than a little surprised, but she accepted it nonetheless.

“Blimey! What’s got you all excited? I’ve not been gone that long.”

“Were just happy to see you again!” Annabel beamed.

“It felt like forever!” John said through a wide grin.

“Well come on in then, we don’t need to all be standing at the door all afternoon.” She ushered the children in quickly before dashing off to get on with her odd jobs while the kids tore into the parlour to find both their mum and dad sat reading.

The three were quick to pile onto the couch where Kate sat to cuddle up to her, resulting in her putting her book down to chat with them.

“Hi! So, how was school?”

“It was great, Mr Smith says we’re going to be doing a book fair in a few weeks.” John grinned as Annabel added,

“Yeah, and we get to go to school, on the day, dressed as our favourite character!” Kate smiled fondly at them. Oh how she’d missed them.

“Mrs Applegate said they’re going to get all the teachers to make cakes to sell at the fair too!” From the side of the fireplace, Michael tutted as he read the newspaper.

“Here, have you heard this?” He asked, “Apparently, they’re converting the gas lamps to electric ones.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I can’t imagine how much disruption that’s going to cause. It’ll take so long too, I mean, there has to be at least a million lights in London alone.” From his place, lying across his mother’s lap as she stroked his hair, Georgie piped up,

“What about Jack and the leeries?” There was a moment of silence as Michael thought of an answer.

“Well, I suppose he’ll just have to get another job.” Although he said it hopefully, he knew such a task would be difficult in the current economy, but the conversion would take a while, so at least he’d have a chance to get prepared before he had to leave.

“Oh yeah, that reminds me,” Kate turned to the kids, “Jack and Jane are coming over for dinner tonight.” They were met with a chorus of small cheers and ‘yes!’s. The kids seemed pretty happy at the news and when Michael asked them to, they didn’t hesitate to rush upstairs and get changed out of their uniforms. It was always special when Jane and Jack came for dinner and this time would be even better as it was the first time they’d come over since Blight.

It had been a strange time getting back into their usual routine, Michael thought, especially since Kate was back. If they had the chance, the family would’ve rather just sat together and talked for eternity, but the universe couldn’t let that happen. The sun rose, the day began and so did the people, bustling around as if nothing of note had ever happened. It was especially strange to see people that Blight had killed years ago, walking around and interacting with their families like nothing was unusual. It was as if they never left. Even Ellen had greeted Kate without even the slightest bit of shock, when she returned. He’d have to ask Jack about that.

Speak of the devil.

When the knock came at the door, Kate had quickly risen and breezed through to the hall- that was now clean of Jack’s blood- to answer. Jack stood arm in arm with Jane as the two wore a matching pair of bright smiles.

“Evenin’ Kate.” Jack chirped as Jane offered a cheerful ‘hello’.

“It’s good to see you both again! Come in, come in.” Kate ushered them inside, allowing them to remove their outdoor-wear and hang them on the coatrack, before bringing them into the main parlour.

Now of course, Michael easily greeted them both- his father had programmed him with a high standard of etiquette at an early age- but as he attempted to make conversation, a realisation hit him. As he and Jack watched the girls chit chat, Michael remembered the confession Jack had made before he was first corrupted, and it was making small-talk pretty difficult.

It gave him much to think about as he analysed both Jack’s and his own behaviour over the past few days. After knowing what happened with Kate, he couldn’t help be feel more protective of his family while around him, as if he was going to fail to protect them. But Jack had proven on many occasions that he was no coward, unless it was common for cowards to charge headlong into battle with a hellish daemon. Every time they’d spoken, it had been a purposeful and necessary conversation if they wanted to survive. But now, he realised that a regular chat that wasn’t going to be about their impending doom was going to be a challenge.

He’d been so lost in his own world, he hadn’t even noticed he was looking at Jack and in his thoughtlessness, was currently holding a rather serious expression. The poor leerie seemed to squirm under his gaze, still fairly certain he was hated. But after an agonising period- which in reality, was probably only a few seconds- he cleared his throat and began to speak,

“So uh- how’ve you been?”

“Oh, well, yeah, I uh- I’ve been fine.” Ow. That was painful. Since when had it been so hard for him to talk to another human being? He wanted to try make the whole ‘small-talk’ thing work, but as his mind continued to draw a blank, it was Jane who moved things along. She gave Michael a quick, but purposeful look, nodding towards Jack as she did so. It took a split second longer than it probably should’ve done for him to realise what she meant by it, but once he did, he was quick to take Jack back out into the hall.

The leerie seemed to know what private talk Michael wanted to have with him, and as he walked, seemed to hold the look of a guilty child about to get a scolding for breaking something. He kept his hands tight in his pockets and walked without his usual spring, all the while with his head downcast to avoid any awkward eye contact and looking around him for any sort of way out of the impending conversation. But Michael was hardly going to let that happen, it had been put off for long enough and considering the fact that the world was no longer ending, there was no reason for it to wait any longer.

“Ok,” he took a steadying breath, “we really need to talk.” Jack stayed silent, but did look him in the eye for a moment. “I feel like if I don’t just come right out and say it now, we’re never going to be able to act properly with each other again, and I really don’t want that. You know what I mean?” He was desperate for any kind of response from Jack, but the young leerie seemed way too uncomfortable to offer anything more that a simple ‘yeah’.

“Look, I know we never really sorted things out after you told us about Kate. I get it, you were scared. I couldn’t have expected you to act a certain way. I know for a fact that I couldn’t have done any better.” When Jack finally raised his head and looked at him properly with his shimmering brown eyes burning into him, he remembered what it was like to see him smile. And he wanted nothing more than to see that again.

“I said a lot of things that I shouldn’t have, and I don’t blame you if you don’t forgive me. I just want to a least be back on civil terms with you. So, I’m sorry.” Jack stayed quiet for a moment as they both remembered how Michael had reacted to Jack’s apology when this first started. Had Jack been a different kind of person, he might of been inclined to hold a grudge. To remind Michael of what he’d said, that sorry couldn’t cover it. But Jack wasn’t that kind of person. He didn’t like it when he upset people. He’d never had an enemy, and certainly didn’t want one in Michael, not when they had the potential to be friends. So he found that he didn’t think about it very much before he reached forward and pulled him into a quick hug.

Jack smiled, “I’m not very good at this sort of thing, but I think we’re ok. We’re good.” Michael breathed a sigh of relief before he remembered something else.

“Oh yeah, and uh, one more thing.” Michael opened the door to the basement, walked down a couple of steps and grabbed something, before bringing it back up to the hall. Jack was left rather surprised to see his bike.

“I found it in the street, so I got it fixed for you.” Sheepishly, he pushed the bike towards Jack, simply giving him an awkward look, before dashing off to deal with something other than the leerie. He couldn’t bear the awkwardness anymore.

As Jack looked down at the bike, he realised something. Georgie repaired Blight’s damage, surely Michael wouldn’t have had to fix the bike... unless it wasn’t broken due to Blight. Upon inspection, almost all the pieces were new, except the handlebars, which still had his carving on them. As he looked to where Michael had gone, he couldn’t help but wonder what a strange man he was. He always seemed to surprise him.

When the children came back downstairs and pleasantries were exchanged, Ellen finally announced dinner was ready. A portion of chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli and gravy were dished out to everyone, before Ellen wandered back into the kitchen to get on with a few other jobs- she was rather far behind on them what with being off ill for so long.

With everyone gathered at the table, Annabel was the first to pose the question they all wanted to ask.

“Why does Ellen not find it odd that mother’s back?” All eyes turned to Jack in the hopes that he was the one that would know, and thankfully, they were right.

“It’s something Worthing did. What with Georgie fixing London, he had all the books he needed. Managed to alter the memories of everyone so they won’t remember the attack, or the fact that anyone was killed by Blight at all. The only ones who’ll ever know are the rest of the leeries and us.” It was strange. Despite everything they went through, history would never remember what they did for it. It was partly disheartening, but also pretty relieving. If they had the reputation of heroes, it could lump them with too much responsibility. Still, a little credit wouldn’t hurt.

“So what are you going to do now Blight’s gone?” Jack looked thoughtful,

“Well, the only reason why we have our job is to defend against Blight. Without him, we’re not needed. Which means the street lights can finally be converted to electric.”

“But what about you?”

“I don’t know. I heard they’re keeping a few of the lads on just in case, but the rest of us will be gradually made redundant as they convert the lights. Worthing said he’ll help us get new jobs, but at the moment, they’re isn’t very much going on in that department. Still, there’s time. Anyway, what about you guys?” He asked with a smile. Kate grinned at Michael and her children.

“Well, we’ve got a lot to do. I’ve been gone all year so I need to catch up on a lot. Take everyone to a lot of places.” The kids all grinned as they looked at each other, knowing this was going to mean lots of trips to the park, time with the family and TLC in general.

“So, what did I miss?”

As a bubbling mass of stories began to be told, the warm light basked the happy family in its sunny glow. They’d never even considered getting to a point like this. Only a year ago, they’d been sure they’d never even see her again, yet here they were, talking and laughing. It had almost lost the house and almost lost the friend who saved it. But when Michael looked to his leerie friend, he knew they could make things work. As for Jane, she was happier than he’d ever seen her before. She seemed to cuddle up to Jack as if they were married. Maybe he could encourage that? While he looked across the table, his eyes landed on his children. John, Annabel and Georgie had all seen and done more than any child ever should. Not once had they complained. Not once did they get too scared. They were willing to help every time. His whole family had been so brave. They’d done so much together and never even thought to walk away from the situation. They could’ve left after Jack saved Georgie. They could’ve gone on with their lives and left the leeries to deal with the problems alone. They’d have been happy and able to get on with things. But it would be very different. And Michael was certain that he liked this better.

Their happiness and chatter meant they never even noticed what was happening in the dark. Outside their warm house, in the middle of spring, in the middle of the night, a group of electricians had torn down the lamp by their door. Time was moving on. History would forget. Would forget the leeries, the lamps, the communities they spawned and the routes they travelled. But even though their world was changing, they would change along with it, and never even notice anything was wrong until they looked back in a few years and realised how different it was. It’s always the case. People are very good at adapting like that. She knew that well.

The woman in red stood outside the house watching the workers and looking past their project every now and then to the happy family within, that weren’t even aware of what was going on. From her place across the street she could just about see their faces. They’d move on. Of that she was certain. But that wasn’t anything new. She was always certain of these things. That’s why she’d left them too it. They never needed her help. Yes. They were quite capable to cope on their own.

And as the moon hung in the sky, casting its light over the world, this time, the shadows were merely that: shadows. No longer did creatures lurk in the dark. No longer was there a reason to be afraid. Blight was gone and history would never even know he was there. Which is why it never seemed so special when the lights changed. The electric buzz was merely an advancement in technology, never once did it occur to them that anything had held back the progress. And never once did anyone want to tell them. Those that did know the truth were merely mortal. One day, they’d pass on and nobody would be left to remember. Which is why it was so important for her to remember. It was good that she wasn’t usually the type to forget. After all, a nanny like her would be a mess if she were to do that.

But the story could wait. Life is a much higher priority than that. There were many who still needed her help. And maybe that way, there could be more families like the Banks in the world. Which meant her work had only just begun. It was time to go. With a swift flick, she raised an umbrella into the air and let the wind carry her away. And of course the electricians saw it. But that was just their eyes playing tricks on them. A magic flying woman would be silly, right? But one thing they were sure of, was the whisper of the wind, carrying gentle words through the darkness as the night breathed over a million lights in London.

“I knew they could do it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! As this is the first time I’ve ever posted any fanfics, I’m eternally grateful of the warm reception this has received. My next plan is to post a shorter story that I wrote before this. I had never intended to post it but it’s grown on me. I’m going to be starting college soon, so it will give me a chance to get ahead on my next big story. So I’ll be posting again next week as usual. Once more, I want to thank you all for sticking with this for so long, and I hope to see you next week for the next new adventure!
> 
> Lots of love,  
> -D


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